/.* 


MEMORIES 


OF   THE 


MEN  WHO  SAVED  THE  UXION 


BY 

BONN    PIATT 

\\ 


NEW  YORK   AND  CHICAGO 
BELFORD,    CLARKE    &    COMPANY 

1887 


COPYRIGHT. 

BELFORD,  CLARKE  &  CO. 
1887. 


p 


TO  MY  BROTHER, 

QL  Sanbcrs  ftiatt, 

WHOSE  DISTINGUISHED  SERVICES  IN  THE  LATE  WAR, 

SCHOLARLY  ATTAINMENTS,    AND    HIGH   CHARACTER,    HAVE 

ADDED  LUSTRE  TO   THE  NAME  WE  BEAR, 

THIS  BOOK 
IS  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED. 


MJL99597 


"The  world  knows  nothing  of  its  greatest  men  " 

— PHILIP  VAN  ARTEVKLDK. 


"The  real  heroes  of  this  war  are  the  'great,  brave,  patient,  nameless 
PEOPLE/  It  is  to  their  service  through  these  varied  scenes  that  we  now 
gladly  turn.  The  victory  was  not  won  through  Generalship— it  is  a  libel 
on  the  word  to  say  that  Generalship  delayed  for  four  years  the  success 
of  twenty-five  millions  over  ten  millions,  or  required  a  million  men  in 
the  closing  campaigns  to  defeat  a  hundred  thousand.  It  was  won  by  the 
sacrifices,  the  heroism,  the  sufferings,  the  death  of  the  men  in  the  ranks. 
Their  story  we  now  seek  to  tell.'1—"  Ohio  in  the  War,"  by  WHITELAW  RKID. 


"West  Point  turns  out  shoulder-strapped  office-holders.  It  cannot 
produce  Soldiers  ;  for  these  are,  as  I  claim,  born,  and  not  made.  And  it  is 
susceptible  of  demonstration  that  the  almost  ruinous  dela3r  in  suppressing 
the  rebellion  and  restoring  the  Union  ;  the  deadly  failure  of  campaigns 
year  after  year  ;  the  awful  waste  of  the  best  soldiers  the  world  has  seen  ; 
and  the  piling  up  of  the  public  debt  into  the  billions,  was  wholly  due  to 
West  Point  influence  and  West  Point  commanders.  They  were  command 
ers,  but  they  were  not  soldiers.11— "Recollections  of  a  Private  Soldier,"  by 
FRANK  WILKESON. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

DEDICATION, m 


PREFACE. 


v 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,      .        .......      27 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON, .      50 

SALMON  P.  CHASE, 95 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD,         . 132 

MAJOR-GENERAL  GEORGE  H.  THOMAS,      .        .       .       .172 

APPENDIX  : 

McClellan's  Own  Story, 28° 

Grant  and  Sherman  on  Thomas 296 

Von  Moltke  as  a  Critic,          .        .        .        .        •        .298 
Dangers  from  France. — Testimony  of  Hon.  L.  Q.  C. 

Lamar,  .......     300 


PEEFAOE. 


PURE  hero  worship  is  healthy.  It  stimulates  the 
young1  to  deeds  of  heroism,  stirs  the  old  to  unselfish 
efforts,  and  gives  the  masses  models  of  manhood 
that  tend  to  lift  humanity  above  the  common-place 
meanness  of  ordinary  life.  The  better  instincts  of 
the  human  race  have,  through  all  the  ages,  recog 
nized  and  elevated  its  heroes  into  something  like 
objects  of  religious  worship.  To  such,  songs  of 
praise  have  been  sung,  eulogies  made  eloquent, 
histories  written,  and  great  monuments  erected. 
When  gods  were  created  by  men,  their  deities  began 
as  heroes,  and  it  was  what  they  did  on  earth  that 
gave  them  existence  and  sovereignty  in  heaven. 

To  have  such  hero-worship  healthy  it  must  be 
true.  The  false  heroes,  like  false  gods,  degrade 
their  worshippers ;  for  let  the  fraud  be  ever  so  well 
constructed,  there  is  a  general  instinctive  conscious 
ness  that  the  thing  is  false.  Temples  of  imposing 
magnitude  may  be  erected,  ceremonies  devised,  and  a 
priesthood  organized,  and  yet  through  all,  the  com 
mon  mind  retains  the  subtle,  almost  unrecognized 
thought  of  falsity  in  the  god.  Fraud  degrades,  and 


vi  Preface. 

the  same  fact  lies  in  the  worship  of  the  charlatan, 
and  that  of  the  real  hero,  as  in  the  worship  of  the 
false  and  the  true  gods.  There  is  no  healthy  return 
from  the  elevation  of  the  unworthy.  The  young-  are 
not  inspired  to  high  deeds,  the  old  grow  more  cynical 
and  selfish,  and  the  common  mind  learns  to  place  an 
unjust  value  on  the  cunning  that  takes  to  itself  the 
niche  in  the  temple  of  fame,  intended  for  the  truly 
great.  A  nation's  greatness  can  be  measured  by 
the  men  it  elevates  for  love  and  admiration,  as  it 
may  be  known  by  its  gods.  The  race  that  worships 
a  monkey-faced  dog  is  inferior  to  the  one  that  has  a 
Jove,  and  the  latter  is  second  to  the  one  that  bows 
down  to  the  true  God. 

There  is  a  popular  delusion  to  the  effect  that  fanat 
icism  is  evidence  of  belief.  It  is  precisely  the  re 
verse.  Fanaticism  means  a  frenzied  assertion  of 
what  one  wants  to  believe,  but  is  conscious  that  it 
cannot  be  sustained  by  reason.  One  is  calm  and 
self-possessed  over  a  belief  that  calls  for  no  argument 
or  assertion  to  establish  it.  When  a  man  asserts, 
for  example,  that  the  sun  does  not  shine,  they  who 
hear  it  have  nothing  but  pity  for  one  born  blind,  or 
who  is  insane.  But  when  an  infidel  avers  his  lack 
of  faith  in  a  religious  dogma,  he  arouses  the  utmost 
fury  in  the  true  believers,  and  yet  the  evidence  that 
enforces  belief  is  the  same  in  both  instances.  If  the 
dogma  was  as  clear  as  sunlight,  a  doubt  as  to  its 
truth  would  be  met  with  calmness  and  commiseration. 

This  holds  good  of  fanaticism  in  all  faiths.    We 


Preface.  vii 

see  it  illustrated  in  the  men  and  matters  made  prom 
inent  by  the  late  war.  Hence  to  question  the  great 
ness  of  Lincoln  is  to  excite  pity  or  contempt,  to  doubt 
that  of  Grant  is  to  run  the  chance  of  being-  knocked 
down.  The  true  believers  walk  backward  and  cover 
their  dead  with  the  mantle  of  concealment,  and  in 
so  doing-  it  matters  nothing-  to  them  that  other  dead 
are  trampled  on.  The  man  who  strews  flowers  on 
the  tomb  of  Grant,  looks  fiercely  around  to  see 
whether  another  grave  is  being-  decorated.  When 
my  article  on  Stanton  was  published  in  the  North 
American  Revieiv,  in  which  I  spoke  of  Thomas  as 
the  great  military  chieftain  of  the  war,  I  was  assailed 
by  numerous  journals,  that  not  content  with  eulog-- 
izing  Grant,  proceeded  to  belittle  Thomas. 

This  is  shameful,  and  no  just  mind  approves  of  or 
seeks  to  follow  the  bad  example.  In  this  broad 
land  of  ours  there  is  space  for  many  monuments. 
Grant  should  have  all  to  which  he  is  entitled,  and 
this  will  not  dim  the  lustre  or  detract  from  the  fame 
of  one  who,  winning-  many  victories,  never  lost  the 
life  of  a  man  through  a  blunder ;  who  lived  beloved 
by  the  brave  fellows  at  his  back,  and  died  lamented, 
leaving-  his  monument  in  the  hearts  of  his  soldiers. 
Modest,  silent,  and  strangely  solitary  he  left  the 
record  of  his  deeds  to  the  keeping-  of  the  brave  men 
who  made  those  deeds  possible.  No  press  reporter 
made  his  headquarters  a  source  of  noisy  eulogy ;  no 
political  party  used  his  name  in  return  for  partisan 
favors.  Suspected  by  the  government  he  did  so 


viii  Preface. 

much  to  save,  he  died  neglected  by  the  very  men 
whose  tenure  of  power  he  had  made  secure. 

This  was  our  great  war  hero,  and  we  can  recognize 
his  merits  without  detracting  from  those  of  others. 
Grant  was  a  brave  man  and  would  fight.  The  dead 
at  Shiloh,  Vicksburg,  the  Wilderness,  and  Cold  Har 
bor  testify  to  this.  But  when  he  boasted  of  his  con 
tempt  for  strategy,  he  transferred  to  the  dead  all  the 
glory  of  the  achievements.  As  the  most  eminent  of 
European  war  critics  has  said  :  "  the  general  com 
manding  a  hundred  and  forty  thousand  men  ought 
to  have  driven  the  sixty  thousand  back  on  Richmond 
without  material  loss."  Victories  that  come  of  con 
tinual  hammering  and  attrition  are  victories  of  the 
men  who  died  that  an  enemy  might  be  destroyed. 

It  is  time  for  us  to  rescue  the  true  from  the  false ; 
this  not  so  much  for  the  sake  of  the  heroes  of  the 
late  war,  for  they  have  passed  from  all  earthly  influ 
ences,  and  it  is  nothing  to  them  whether  bronze  or 
marble  monuments  mark  their  graves,  or  they  sleep 
forgotten  in  their  narrow  homes ;  but  it  is  for  us  who 
survive  them,  for  our  children,  and  the  unending 
generations  that  will  live  to  enjoy  what  our  great 
men  have  accomplished  in  their  behalf. 

It  is  to  aid  in  this  good  work  that  I  have  written 
and  now  publish  this  little  book.  I  made  one  of  the 
millions  called  out  to  defend  our  national  existence, 
and  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  come  in  contact  with 
the  eminent  men  who  led  us  through  that  death- 
struggle  to  victory  at  last.  While  taking  an  active 


Preface.  ix 

part  in  the  war,  I  found  myself,  through  my  tempera 
ment,  more  of  a  looker-on  than  a  participant.  I  had, 
instinctively,  a  horror  of  war.  The  cruel  brutality 
sickened  me  and,  so  wiping1  out  all  ambition  in  that 
line,  left  only  a  sense  of  duty  to  hold  me  to  the  ser 
vice.  This  enabled  me  to  look  at  men  and  events 
from  the  stand-point  of  an  observer,  and,  while 
claiming  for  myself  no  superiority  of  intellect,  I  well 
know  that  my  position  enabled  me  to  coolly  measure 
all  that  has  a  right  to  history. 

I  saw  then  what  I  see  now,  and  what  will  be 
recognized  hereafter,  when  popular  passion  shall 
have  subsided,  and  prejudice  engendered  by  a  deadly 
strife  shall  have  disappeared,  that  the  armed  conflict 
of  the  Civil  War  was  but  one-third  of  the  burthen 
imposed  upon  the  great  and  good  men  God  called  to 
power  at  Washington.  The  reader  will  find,  as  he 
peruses  these  pages,  that  it  is  strangely  unjust  to 
confine  our  hero-worship  to  the  men  of  arms.  There 
is  something  about  the  glare  and  blare  of  war 
that  blinds  the  common  mind  to  the  greatness  that 
lies  back  of  its  smoke  and  noise.  The  stranger  in 
Washington,  finding  at  every  corner  a  bronze  or 
marble  warrior,  would  suppose  that  we  were  a  mili 
tary  power  and  had  behind  us  grand  wars  and  great 
victories.  Such  stranger  will  be  amazed  to  learn 
that  we  are  a  nation  of  peaceable  farmers,  traders, 
and  mechanics,  with  but  one  real  war  to  commemo 
rate  ;  and,  as  for  victories,  nearly  all  these  majestic 
figures  represent  heroe.s  of  defeat. 


x  Preface. 

To  understand  why  it  is  that  we  have  more  than 
one  military  hero  to  set  up  in  an  open  space  at  the 
capital,  we  must  take  a  more  philosophical  view  of 
the  late  conflict  than  that  indulged  in  by  the  popular 
mind.  When  the  late  war  broke  upon  us  in  all  its 
fury,  it  found  the  South  partially  prepared,  and  the 
North  taken  altogether  by  surprise.  The  war  ele 
ment  the  Confederate  leaders  could  draw  from  in 
the  Slave  States  at  once,  and  that  the  North  knew 
nothing-  of,  was  the  fanaticism  that  for  nearly  two 
years  kept  an  army  in  the  field,  that  girt  their 
borders  with  a  fire  that  shrivelled  our  forces,  as  they 
marched  in,  like  tissue  paper  in  a  flame.  How  those 
men  fought  the  world  will  never  know,  for  it  cannot 
be  told.  Born  and  bred  amid  scenes  of  turmoil  and 
lawless  disturbance,  accustomed  to  arms,  and  familiar 
with  violent  deaths,  they  were  animated  by  a  feeling 
of  wrath  that  the  word  fanaticism  feebly  expresses. 
For  two  years  this  held  them  to  a  conflict  in  which 
they  were  invincible.  The  North  poured  out  its  noble 
soldiery  by  thousands,  and  they  fought  well,  but 
their  broken  columns  and  tkinned  lines  drifted  back 
upon  our  capital  with  nothing  but  shameful  disaster, 
to  tell  of  the  dead  and  dying,  the  lost  colors,  and  the 
captured  artillery. 

This  violence  lasted  nearly  two  years.  It  spent  its 
fury  on  the  solid  heroic  force  of  the  North.  No  defeat, 
however  shameful  and  disastrous,  discouraged  our 
noble  people.  No  man  worthy  of  the  name  of  man 
doubted  our  eventual  success.  The  land  might  be 


Preface.  xi 

appalled  at  the  bloody  results  of  important  fights ; 
desolation  might  enter  into  all  the  households  and 
spread  mourning  over  the  country,  and  yet  at  every 
call  troops  came,  and  one  general  failed  only  to  be 
followed  by  another.  The  men  at  the  South,  half- 
starved,  unsheltered,  shoeless,  and  in  rags,  weakened 
in  their  victories,  and  the  time  came  when  it  was  pos 
sible  for  a  hundred  and  forty  thousand  to  drive  back 
sixty  thousand.  I  say  this  grew  into  a  possibility, 
although  in  his  victorious  march  from  the  Rapidan 
to  Richmond  the  Federal  general  left  in  dead  behind 
him  more  men  than  the  Confederates  had  in  the 
field. 

The  Confederacy  reached  the  zenith  of  its  fortunes 
at  the  battle  of  Gettysburg.  It  fell  as  rapidly  as  it 
had  risen.  But  it  went  down  fighting.  We  have  to 
consider  all  this  when  we  come  to  measure  the  war 
men.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  Grant, 
Sherman,  and  Sheridan  are  great  in  the  eyes  of  the 
multitude  only  because  they  happened  to  be  in 
command  when  the  Confederacy  fell  from  sheer  ex 
haustion.  Had  they  been  put  in  the  field  at  the  head 
of  our  armies  when  the  unfortunate  McClellan  went 
down,  they  would  not  have  lived  thirty  days.  The 
last  doctor,  or  rather  the  last  dose,  has  the  credit  or 
discredit,  in  the  eyes  of  the  ignorant,  of  the  cure  or 
the  killing  of  the  patient.  Grant  was  not  only  on 
horseback  when  the  Confederacy  ended,  but  he  died 
under  the  shadow  of  Lee's  surrendered  sword  ;  and 
that  shadow  saved  him  and  his  sons  from  the  aw- 


xii  Preface. 

ful  fate  of  the  partners  when  they  sought  to  realize 
millions  on  Army  and  Navy  contracts;  and  this 
mighty  shadow  keeps  his  tomb  green  with  immor 
telles  from  a  people  that  could  forgive  all  to  a  man 
who  was  in  at  the  death  of  so  terrible  an  enemy. 

It  is  strange  what  magic  lingers  about  the  moul 
dering  remains  of  Virginia's  rebel  leader.  His  very 
name  confers  renown  upon  his  enemies.  The  pure 
white  hands  are  folded  over  a  heart  once  so  grand  in 
its  emotions  that  his  life  seemed  that  of  a  saint,  and 
his  deeds  made  so  sacred  a  bad  cause  that  a  revolt 
rose  to  the  dignity  of  a  great  war.  As  1  have  said, 
the  shadow  of  his  surrendered  sword  not  only  gives 
renown  to  an  otherwise  unknown  grave,  but  blinds 
the  common  mind  to  the  frightful  slaughter  that  led 
up  to  that  surrender,  and  the  awful  corruptions  that 
did  more  to  degrade  and  destroy  our  Government 
than  Lee's  armed  hosts. 

Aside  from  all  other  considerations,  it  does  not 
speak  well  for  the  pride  of  our  people  that  we  should 
be  eager  to  accept  such  lack  of  generalship  as  the 
inhuman  butcheries  that  followed  the  continuous 
"hammering"  of  a  greatly  superior  force  upon  a 
fierce  enemy,  upon  the  understanding  that  we  could 
lose  two  lives  to  the  enemy's  one,  and  so  win  through 
attrition.  The  sixty  thousand  dead  between  the 
Rapidan  and  Richmond,  the  like  proportion  sleeping 
in  humble  graves  between  Chattanooga  and  Atlanta, 
tell  of  the  heroic  devotion  of  the  poor  fellows  who 
volunteered  to  fight  and,  if  necessary,  die  for  their 


Preface.  xiii 

country,  but  history  will  fail  to  find  therein  material 
for  monuments  to  generals. 

The  mystery  attending1  General  Grant's  eminence, 
aside  from  the  fact  that  he  was  in  at  the  death  of 
the  fierce  Confederacy,  is  of  easy  solution.  After 
the  war,  while  he  hung  doubtful  between  the  party 
he  had  acted  with  and  the  party  in  power,  he  was 
seized  on  by  the  last  named  as  so  much  political 
capital,  and  used  in  that  direction  for  far  more  than 
he  was  worth,  Recognizing  the  inevitable  found  in 
the  "  military  bullet-heads,"  as  Hawthorne  expressed 
it,  and  bound  to  make  Presidents  for  years  to -come, 
the  Republican  party  made  Grant  their  own.  The 
press  of  the  country,  that  is,  in  the  main  Republican, 
the  tremendous  army  of  office-holders  and  office- 
seekers  are,  and  have  been,  united  in  making  a  hero 
of  a  man  whose  operations  in  the  field  will  not  bear 
inspection,  and  whose  Civil  Service  and  financial 
operations  can  be  condoned  only  on  the  ground  of 
his  miraculous  ignorance  and  stupidity.  There  is 
nothing  so  fierce,  unforgiving,  and  unreasonable  as 
political  partisanship  in  the  United  States ;  but  this 
very  partisanship  renders  short-lived  the  falsehood  it 
seeks  to  make  permanent.  Already  the  noise  is 
dying  out,  and  as  the  truth  comes  forth  from  the 
Confederate  side,  dust  gathers  on  the  tomb  of  this 
one  hero  built  up  at  the  expense  of  others  more 
deserving.  The  demand  that  bids  us  worship  at  the 
shrine  of  Grant,  while  we  are  to  turn  our  backs  upon 
and  neglect  the  real  hero  of  the  war,  George  H. 


xiv  Preface. 

Thomas,  is  one  that  cannot  long-  be  obeyed  by  the 
people,  especially  by  the  thousands  that,  serving 
under  him,  felt  his  kindness  shown  in  his  care  of 
them,  and  recognized  his  greatness  in  his  deeds. 

In  common  with  other  and  more  philosophical 
observers,  I  could  well  leave  the  proper  adjustment 
of  claims  to  the  sober  second  thought  of  those  coming 
after  us  to  whose  decision  we  must  bow  in  submis 
sion,  but  for  the  exasperating  fact  that  the  admirers 
of  the  meretricious,  not  content  with  erecting  monu 
ments  to  their  gods,  are  busy  as  thieves  stealing 
from  the  monuments  of  others.  In  Italy  I  have  not 
only  seen  temples  to  false  gods  despoiled  to  erect 
churches  to  the  true  God,  but  I  have  looked  on  great 
monuments  of  art  despoiled  to  build  hideous  lodging- 
houses  for  shop-keepers.  It  remained  for  us  to 
mutilate  the  tombs  of  the  deserving  in  order  to  set 
up  memorials  to  others  whose  right  to  praiseworthy 
recognition  is  more  than  doubtful. 

After  all,  as  I  have  said,  the  war  part  of  the  late 
civil  conflict,  that  has  so  absorbed  public  attention, 
made  but  one-third  of  the  task  imposed  upon  the  Ad 
ministration  in  its  defence  of  our  national  existence. 
The  weary  sweat  of  anxious  toil,  the  w^ork  planned 
by  great  minds  and  carried  out  by  patriotic  hearts, 
in  that  terrible  struggle,  seems  lost  in  the  roar  of 
the  armed  conflict  amid  the  glare  of  devastation 
that  followed  the  appeal  to  brute  force.  The  popular 
mind  fails  to  perceive  that  lying  back  of  all  this 
noise  was  hidden  the  quiet  brain  power,  as  in  the 


Preface.  xv 

iron-banded  boiler  and  still  cylinder  is  concealed  the 
noiseless  force  making-  possible  the  rattle  and  roar 
of  machinery  that  come  to  stun  one  while  the  work 
is  being-  done. 

Had  victory,  through  armed  conflict,  been  all  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  his  able  advisers  and  states 
men  were  called  upon  to  accomplish,  the  task  had 
been  easy.  The  people  responded  with  patriotic 
ardor  to  the  call  to  arms,  a  hundred  thousand  at  a 
time ;  the  ingenious  ability  of  Salmon  P.  Chase  pro 
vided  the  money  necessary  to  keep  the  army  in 
the  field ;  and  Edwin  M.  Stanton  clothed,  armed, 
organized,  and  fed.  Even  without  military  ability 
in  our  generals,  it  was  a  mere  question  of  time 
when  the  Confederacy  would  sink  exhausted.  The 
great  danger  that  menaced  us  lay  in  European 
interference,  against  which  that  greatest  of  all  Sec 
retaries  of  State  guarded ;  and  second  only  to  this 
was  the  danger  from  secession,  or,  as  it  was  popu 
larly  called  "  copperhead  "  S3^mpathy  that  lay  coiled, 
ready  to  strike  at  the  patriotic  North.  How  this 
crept  into  the  army  itself,  and  found  expression  at 
General  McClellan's  headquarters,  I  have  striven  to 
tell  in  these  pages.  Since  they  were  written,  McClel 
lan's  own  story  has  appeared,  and  in  it  my  reader 
will  find  confirmation,  strong  as  proof  of  Holy  Writ, 
of  all  that  I  have  asserted.  Every  page  of  the  story 
bristles  with  denunciation  of  the  Government  at 
Washington,  and  the  celebrated  Harrison  Bar  letter 
is  given,  in  which  the  great  military  failure,  with 


xvi  Preface. 

cool  audacity,  undertakes  the  entire  control  of  the 
civil  Government. 

Even  when  public  attention  is  called  to  the  great 
statesmen  at  Washington,  there  is  a  strange  per 
versity  in  the  popular  mind  that  keeps  it  from  seeing* 
its  favorites  precisely  as  they  were.  Lincoln,  Stan- 
ton,  Chase,  and  Seward  were  great  enough  without 
exaggeration.  To  take  them  precisely  as  the}^  were 
is  to  justify  our  hero-worship.  Our  people  are  not 
content  with  that,  and  their  heroes  must  be  idealized 
beyond  recognition  to  secure  content  in  the  popular 
mind.  This  is  to  be  regretted ;  for,  while  it  adds 
nothing  to  the  greatness  of  the  popular  idols,  it  robs 
them  of  those  weaknesses  of  humanity  that  insure 
love  as  well  as  admiration.  The  interest  that 
attaches  to  human  endeavor  is  based  on  the  sym 
pathy  we  feel  in  the  struggle,  against  odds,  of  one 
who  fights  not  only  adverse  outside  influences,  but 
weaknesses  within  for  something  higher  and  better 
than  their  lot.  The  perfect  man  has  nothing  of  this. 
He  is  the  God-protected  Achilles  in  the  epic  where 
the  unprotected  Hector  is  the  hero. 

While  authors  of  fiction  are  coming  to  understand 
that  the  real  is  the  basis  of  good  work,  biography  is 
yet  held  to  the  old-fashioned  Plutarchian  process  of 
idealization.  And  yet  biography  is  supposed  to  deal 
with  facts,  and  gets  its  ground  for  approving  faith 
in  its  adherence  to  nature.  When  Cromwell  ordered 
the  painter  to  reproduce  on  canvas  the  wart  nature 
gave  his  face,  he  left  us  a  portrait  that  told,  beyond 


Preface.  xvii 

the  telling-  in  words,  that  it  was  a  true  likeness  of 
the  man  that  scorned  to  lie.  In  like  manner,  when 
Froude  published  the  private  papers  of  Carlyle,  he 
gave  us  a  better  philosophy  than  Carlyle  had  ever 
written.  While  the  few  are  angered  at  the  destruc 
tion  of  what  they  wanted  to  believe,  the  sympathy 
of  the  many  is  awakened  by  the  dark  picture  of  a 
great  man  who  struggled  wofully  through  life 
against  bodily  ills  that  would  have  made  a  common 
man  a  criminal. 

"  Give  me  the  truth,'7  said  the  great  Napoleon  to 
his  marshals,  when  they  went  out  to  fight  without 
his  immediate  supervision,  and  the  truth  is  what  we 
want  if  we  seek  to  be  benefited  by  history. 

Recognizing  this,  I  wrote,  some  two  years  since, 
for  publication,  my  recollections  of  Lincoln,  and  the 
impression  that  great  man  made  upon  my  mind.  I 
strove  to  depict  him  as  he  appeared  to  me,  without 
the  distorting  glamor  of  a  great  war  and  a  high 
office.  I  painted  the  wart  upon  his  face.  This 
article  gave  rise  to  a  huge  volume  of  Lincoln  litera 
ture,  beginning  with  some  twaddle  of  General  Grant, 
and  ending  with  the  impressions  of  reporters.  I 
had  failed  to  hit  the  popular  ideal,  and  my  sketch, 
to  which  every  essay  in  the  book  was  an  answer, 
appeared  at  the  end,  instead  of  being,  as  it  was  in 
fact,  at  the  beginning. 

Reading  that  volume,  I  found  interest,  if  not  amuse 
ment,  in  the  treatment  of  common  belief  therein  pro- 
sented.  When  this  is  summed  up  it  means  an  elong- 


xviii  Preface. 

ated  oddity  of  tears  and  gross  fun.  He  is  the  his 
torical  Job  Trotter  of  those  troubled  times,  and  when 
not  telling-  questionable  stories,  is  weeping-  over  some 
case  of  distress.  These  narrators  do  not  seem  to  be 
aware  that  they  are  belittling  their  subject,  and 
that  if  they  succeeded  in  securing-  a  settled  convic 
tion  the  grandest  character  in  our  annals  would 
appear  to  posterity  as  a  weak  clown,  ready  to  jeer  or 
weep  at  a  moment's  notice.  None  of  this  is  true.  I 
saw  Lincoln  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  shortly  before 
and  shortly  after  his  first  election  to  the  Presidency. 
I  found  him  then  what  lie  proved  subsequently  to  be, 
the  man  1  told  of  in  my  sketch.  This  does  not  differ 
from  the  many  impressions  collected  in  Allen  Thorn- 
dyke  Bice's  book,  save  in  two  particulars.  I  said  he 
was  a  raan  of  coarse,  tough  fibre,  through  which  ran 
a  vein  of  humor;  and  who,  while  good-natured  in 
manner,  was  not  remarkable  for  kindness  of  heart. 
To  these  views  the  world  at  large,  and  these  many 
contributors,  take  exception. 

It  is  common  for  the  popular  mind  to  accept  a 
good-natured,  easy  manner  for  kindness.  The  fact 
is,  such  manner  is  proof  of  the  reverse.  A  man  of 
real  kindness  in  his  nature  is  apt  to  be  rendered  irri 
table  in  his  efforts  to  remedy  or  alleviate  the 
many  woes  and  right  the  many  wrongs  that  beset 
his  path.  Old  Sam  Johnson,  for  example,  had  the 
hide  of  a  bear  and  the  heart  of  a  baby.  I  have 
known  many  such,  and  so  have  you,  my  reader; 
for  a  knowledge  of,  and  a  sympathy  for,  those  who 


Preface.  xix 

suffer  arouses  a  just  indignation  against  the  wrong 
doer,  and  makes  the  true  philanthropist  irritable  and 
combative.  The  good-natured  man  is  the  one  who 
selfishly  avoids  all  trouble  and,  finding  that  it  is 
easier  to  go  through  life  in  harmony  with  all,  is  pro 
lific  of  smiles  and  kind  words,  and  is  not  sparing  of 
good  deeds  when  such  can  be  done  without  sacrifice 
of  comfort  to  himself. 

No  better  illustration  can  be  had  of  what  I  am 
striving  to  say  than  in  the  true  characters  of  Lincoln 
and  Stanton.  The  last-named  has  gone  to  his  grave 
marked  as  the  hardest  man  ever  in  office.  And  yet, 
knowing  them  both  intimately,  I  can  say  with  truth 
that  Stanton  had  the  kinder  heart  of  the  two.  He 
was  made  by  nervous  disorder  extremely  irritable, 
and  his  manner  was,  at  times,  positively  brutal. 
Under  this  rough  exterior  beat  a  heart  that  made 
the  most  tender  of  husbands,  affectionate  as  a 
'ather,  the  truest  of  friends,  and  when  touched  by 
some  instance  of  sorrow  and  misfortune,  the  readiest 
bo  act,  and  act  at  a  sacrifice  to  his  own  comfort  or 
well-being. 

It  is  strange  how  men  can  be  blind  to  the  effects  of 
bheir  own  assertions.  No  man  ever  rose  to  eminence 
as  a  leader  of  men  through  a  cultivation  of  the 
amiable  virtues.  The  man  who  has  no  enemies  has 
no  following.  To  be  great  one  must  be  positive,  and 
gain  strength  through  foes.  A  man  selects  his 
enemies,  his  friends  make  themselves,  and  from 
these  friends  he  is  apt  to  suffer.  "  Save  me  from  my 


xx  Preface. 

friends,"  is  an  old  adage.  A  community  chooses 
its  leader  very  much  as  one  does  his  blacksmith,  not 
because  he  is  agreeable,  but  for  that  he  can  do  the 
work.  There  is  an  instinctive  knowledge  of  this  in 
the  people,  and  in  a  republic,  where  the  representative 
represents,  we  have  ability  of  a  certain  sort,  whether 
we  have  honesty  or  not.  Of  course  this  rule  fails 
where  money  intervenes.  The  rich  have  neither 
morals  nor  sense,  and  when  they  purchase  their  way 
into  official  position,  the  very  foundations  of  the 
republic  are  disturbed. 

The  amiable  man,  who  has  no  views  with  which 
to  offend,  no  positive  characteristics  to  antagonize 
others,  no  high  ambition  for  which  to  sacrifice  his 
support,  may  be  an  official  in  times  of  profound 
peace,  but  he  cannot  be  a  leader  in  the  hour  of  peril. 
It  is  possible  for  him  to  be  a  politician,  and  follow 
the  masses,  but  he  cannot  be  a  statesman  and  lead 
the  people.  Let  the  student  look  over  the  brief  list 
of  eminent  men  whom  we  regard  as  our  statesmen, 
and  note  the  positive  character  of  each,  and  how 
little  any  one  of  them  was  possessed  of  the  weak 
amiability  that  is  supposed  to  be  popular. 

Abraham  Lincoln  had  a  good-natured,  easy  way, 
so  far  as  manner  went,  but  beneath  this  was  a  firm 
character — the  result  of  temperament  and  training. 
The  son  of  poor  people,  "  the  white  trash  of  the  South 
spawned  on  Illinois,"  as  Wendell  Phillips  tersely 
expressed  it,  he  worked  his  way  up  by  the  hardest 
study  to  a  leading  position  at  the  bar;  The  title 


Preface.  xxi 

of  "Honest  old  Abe,"  it  is  well  known,  was  given 
him  because  of  his  plausible  affectation  of  simplicity 
in  dealing-  with  a  jury.  And  with  a  jury  he  was 
singularly  successful  because  he  understood  the 
common  men  composing  that  body,  and,  getting 
down  to  the  level  of  their  intelligence,  played  upon 
their  prejudices.  "  The  best  school  for  a  lawyer," 
said  the  late  Tom  Corwin,  of  Ohio,  "  is  a  two  years' 
service  on  the  jury ;  without  the  knowledge  gained 
there  the  advocate  is  certain  to  fire  over  the  heads 
of  the  twelve  good  and  true  gentlemen  of  the  panel." 
Remembering  that  keen  sensibility  is  the  result 
of  culture,  and  that  no  study  so  contracts  the  intel 
lect  and  subdues  the  emotions  as  that  of  the  law, 
we  can  easily  take  the  measure  of  this,  our  greatest 
man,  without  any  loss  to  his  real  greatness.  It  is 
of  no  use  to  quote  instances,  against  this  conclusion, 
of  cases  where  Lincoln  volunteered  in,  or  without  fee 
fought  some  poor  fellows'  claim  through  to  recog 
nition.  All  eminent  lawyers,  at  some  time  in  their 
lives,  have  done  this,  either  from  pride  of  opinion, 
having  some  principle  to  establish,  or  seeking  an 
advertisement  as  a  physician  who  practises  gratis 
among  the  poor.  I  have  never  known,  nor  have 
you,  gentle  reader,  a  lawyer  who  injured  his  practice 
through  an  excessive  display  of  his  emotional  nature. 
In  embalming  a  body  it  is  necessa^  to  remove  the 
viscera  and  brain,  and  in  the  popular  mind  some 
thing  of  the  same  process  has  to  be  gone  through 
with  to  make  a  hero. 


xxii  Preface. 

That  man  is  great  who  rises  to  the  emergencies 
of  the  occasion,  and  becomes  master  of  the  situation. 
I  was  once  on  board  a  vessel  at  sea,  when,  through  an 
accident  to  the  machinery  in  a  storm,  we  were 
threatened  with  destruction.  It  was  not  the  captain, 
nor  any  of  his  officers,  or  the  demoralized  crew  we 
had  to  look  to  for  safety.  A  man  before  then 
unknown,  save  as  a  quiet  passenger,  came  to  the 
front.  I  can  still  hear  his  clear,  clarion-like  voice, 
and  see  his  calm  yet  determined  manner,  as  he  took 
command  and,  with  force  and  intelligence,  directed 
our  efforts.  But  for  him  the  rotten,  leaky  boats 
would  have  been  launched,  and  the  vessel  abandoned. 
The  captain  saw  the  madness  of  such  an  attempt, 
but  had  not  the  mastery  to  enforce  his  opinion. 
The  unknown  man  had.  We  were  saved  from  a 
cruel  death  by  his  presence  of  mind,  clear  intellect, 
and  control  of  others.  The  lesson  learned  on  that 
trying  occasion  has  remained  with  me.  It  taught 
me  not  only  to  know  a  leader,  but  to  appreciate  the 
qualities  that  make  him  such. 

The  indomitable  will  that  overrides  all  obstacles, 
strong  in  its  high  purpose,  has  little  regard  for  the 
weak,  and  the  pathway  of  such  is  strewn  with  wrecks 
that  a  kind  heart  would  waste  its  powers  in  attempts 
to  alleviate.  When,  therefore,  one  tells  me  that 
Secretary  Stanton  pointed  to  a  sofa  in  his  office  upon 
which  Lincoln  was  wont  to  throw  himself  and  burst 
into  tears,  he  is  telling  of  a  man  who  said  to 
General  Schenck  and  me,  in  the  darkest  period  of 


Preface.  xxiii 

that  dreadful  war,  that  he  "  ate  his  rations  and  slept 
well,"  and  his  looks  sustained  his  assertion.  That 
he  may  have  shed  tears  when  Baker  was  killed  I  can 
well  believe,  but  that  the  man  whose  iron  will  and 
high  intellect  carried  the  Government  through  that 
terrible  war  was  wont  to  throw  himself  upon  a  sofa 
and  burst  into  tears  is  something-  common-sense 
rejects  as  untrue.  In  like  manner  it  is  generally 
agreed  that  his  indulgence  in  coarse  jokes  and 
humorous  stories  came  from  the  necessity  for  relief 
from  the  grave  cares  incident  to  his  high  office.  Let 
this  be  admitted,  and  where  does  it  leave  these 
eulogists  ?  What  man  of  keen,  delicate  sensibility 
could  find  relief  from  cares  of  any  sort  in  jests  so 
coarse  that  they  cannot  be  put  to  record  ?  It  is  well 
while  idealizing  a  subject  to  be  logical  and  consistent. 
Again,  this  habit,  that  ran  through  his  life  from 
the  time  he  was  a  day-laborer  until  he  died  a  presi 
dent,  is  excused  only  during  the  four  years  of  the 
war,  when  cares  were  oppressive.  The  jokes  were 
then  a  relief  to  him  !  How  about  the  long  period 
previous  ?  Let  us  see.  While  a  rail-splitter  in  his 
early  manhood,  he  was  noted  for  his  jokes  and  stories. 
Had  he  the  necessity  then  for  relief  ?  As  a  member 
of  the  bar  he  was  accustomed  to  amuse  his  associates 
in  the  same  way.  Did  the  reason  for  relief  apply 
in  that  case  ?  As  a  member  of  Congress  he  was 
a  habitue  of  the  cloak-room,  holding  a  circle  of 
amused  members,  listening  to  his  recital  of  funny 
stories.  Were  the  cares  of  legislation  so  heavy  that 


xxiv  Preface. 

this  was  necessary  ?  It  is  all  nonsense.  The  habit 
of  life  that  had  come  to  be  a  second  nature  clung 
to  him  through  the  discharge  of  duties  in  the  high 
position  to  which  he  had  been  so  unexpectedly  called. 

Herein  lies  the  real  greatness  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 
There  are  two  sorts  of  natures  that  survive  the 
severe  strain  of  high  responsibility.  One  is  a  dull, 
coarse  temperament  that  does  not  know  and  feel  the 
responsibility.  The  other  is  a  strong  mental  and 
physical  nature  that  accepts  the  trust  .with  full  confi 
dence  in  itself.  It  is  not  the  work  that  kills,  but  the 
worry.  President  Lincoln  had  no  worry.  With  a 
strong  confidence  in  himself,  and  a  deep  reliance  on 
the  rule  of  right  that  governs  our  being,  he  calmly 
exercised  his  power  without  loss  of  nerve-force,  and 
so  ate  with  appetite,  and  slept  the  sleep  of  the  just. 
He  did  not  forego  the  amusement  he  found  in  the 
humor  that  was  part  of  his  nature. 

Said  Thouvenel,  the  youthful  French  diplomat, 
who  wielded  such  a  wide  influence  under  the  second 
empire,  in  response  to  my  assertion  that  Louis  Napo 
leon  must  be  a  great  man  to  control  such  a  govern 
ment,  "  It  does  not  call  for  more  ability  to  manage  an 
empire  than  it  does  to  manage  a  wholesale  shoe  store, 
if  the  emperor  only  thinks  so.  See,  I  lay  a  narrow 
plank  upon  the  ground,  and  any  one  can  walk  it. 
I  lift  that  plank  a  hundred  feet  above  the  earth,  and 
only  one  in  a  thousand  has  nerve  enough  to  do  so. 
The  way  to  govern  an  empire  is  not  to  know  that 
the  plank  is  off  the  ground .  The  uncle  knew,  he  had 


Preface.  xxv 

nerve,  the  nephew  does  not  know,  and  nerve  is  not 
necessary.  Some  day  he  will  make  a  false  step  and 
be  astonished  at  his  fall." 

Abraham  Lincoln  saw,  with  some  amusement,  and 
at  times  no  little  annoyance,  his  subordinates  fret 
and  worry  over  their  work  and  sink  exhausted  from 
the  strain,  while  he  held  his  strength  unimpaired. 
When  after  Pope's  defeat  and  McClellan's  treachery, 
he  saw  our  armies  resolved  into  a  mob  and  tumbled 
back  on  Washing-ton,  he  made  preparations  for  a 
removal  of  the  Government  with  the  same  quiet 
coolness  with,  which  he  welcomed  the  victorious 
armies  to  the  capital  after  Lee's  surrender.  Had  the 
Administration  been  forced  out  of  Washington,  the 
people  of  the  North  would  have  seen  him  at  Harris- 
burg  or  Philadelphia  striving  to  retrieve  the  terrible 
disaster  with  the  same  cool  courage,  and  quiet  re 
liance  in  himself  and  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the 
right,  that  distinguished  him  in  his  hour  of  victory. 
He  was  a  grand  man,  but  to  assert  that  he  had  a  del 
icate  temperament,  a  fine  fibre,  is  to  indulge  in  a  con 
tradictory  absurdity ;  and  to  say  that  he  \vas  a  weep- 
ing,  willowy,  impressionable  character  is  monstrous. 

In  the  historical  adjustment  of  merit  due  the 
eminent  men  of  so  late  a  period  as  the  Civil  War  it 
is  well  to  remember  that  we  are  taught  by  the  rule  of 
evidence  to  bear  in  mind  that  coequal  in  importance 
with  the  character  of  the  witness  is  the  probability 
of  the  story.  Indeed  the  highest  authority  teaches 
us  that  the  last  is  of  more  importance  than  the  first, 


xxvi  Preface. 

and  that  if  the  story  is  improbable  it  makes  no  dif 
ference  how  high  may  be  the  character  of  the  witness 
or  witnesses,  the  testimony  cannot  command  belief. 
The  application  of  this  well-recognized  rule  goes  far 
toward  the  settlement  of  conflicting  claims  and  a  rec 
ognition  of  our  true  heroes.  Judged  by  this  rule,  not 
only  Abraham  Lincoln,  but  all  the  statesmen  and 
soldiers  about  him  seem  consistent  each  with  them 
selves,  and  more  truly  great  to  us,  than  they  appear 
through  the  exaggerating  medium  of  popular  belief. 
It  is  strange  now  to  know  that  during  President 
Lincoln's  term  of  office,  and  for  years  after  his  death, 
he  was  popularly  regarded  as  a  shrewd,  cunning  sort 
of  man,  and  great  stress  was  placed  on  his  kind,  for 
giving  nature.  The  one  now  appears  as  grossly  ex 
aggerated  as  the  other  wras  false.  To  the  more 
thoughtful  his  great  force  of  character  that  covered 
an  indomitable  will  under  a  calm  temperament,  to 
gether  with  an  almost  mysterious  grasp  of  intellect, 
marked  the  man.  Slowly  the  public  mind  will  come 
to  recognize  its  hero,  and  dwell  entranced  upon  that 
grand  central  figure  of  the  group  God  called  to  the 
front  in  the  woi'ul  hour  of  a  nation's  peril. 

As  stands  the  pyramid,  a  mystery 
Cleaving  wedge-like  the  misty  realm  of  time, 
And  hides  within  its  depths  the  unknown  king 
'Twas  built  to  memorize  ;  so  common  fame 
Covers  with  cloudy  fiction  all  the  real  man, 
And  leaves  a  shadow  to  the  worshippers. 

MAC-O-CHEE,  OHIO,  February  17,  1887. 


7 


Wt 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

No  greater  truth  ever  found  expression  in  poetic 
words  than  that  which  Sir  Henry  Taylor  puts  in  the 
speech  of  Philip  Van  Artevelde,  when  he  says  "  the 
world  knows  nothing1  of  its  greatest  men."  The 
poet  restricted  his  meaning  to 

"The  kings  of  thought, 

"Who  wage  contention  with  their  time's  decay, 
And  of  the  past  are  all  that  will  not  pass  away." 

But  it  extends  as  well  to  those  men  of  affairs  who 
earn  the  admiration  of  the  crowd  they  control.  This 
ignorance  comes  of  the  fact  that  great  men  have  ene 
mies  while  alive,  and  friends  when  dead,  and  between 
the  two  the  objects  of  hate  and  love  pass  into  histor 
ical  phantoms,  far  more  unreal  than  their  ghosts  are 
supposed  to  be.  With  us,  when  a  leader  dies  all 
good  men  go  to  lying  about  him,  and  from  the  mon 
ument  that  covers  his  remains  to  the  last  echo  of  the 
rural  press,  in  speeches,  sermons,  eulogies,  and  remi 
niscences,  we  have  naught  but  pious  lies.  There  is 
no  tyranny  so  despotic  as  that  of  public  opinion 
among  a  free  people.  The  rule  of  the  majority  is 
to  the  last  extent  exacting  and  brutal .  When  brought 
to  bear  upon  our  eminent  men  it  is  also  senseless. 


28  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

Poor  Garfield,  with  his  sensitive  temperament,  was 
almost  driven  to  suicide  by  abuse  while  alive.  He 
fell  by  the  shot  of  an  assassin,  and  passed  in  an  in 
stant  to  the  roll  of  popular  saints.  One  day  it 
provoked  contempt  to  say  a  word  in  his  favor,  the 
next  it  was  dangerous  to  repeat  any  of  the  old 
abuse. 

History  is,  after  all,  the  crystallization  of  popular 
beliefs.  As  a  pleasant  fiction  is  more  acceptable  than 
a  naked  fact,  and  as  the  historian  shapes  his  wares, 
like  any  other  dealer,  to  suit  his  customers,  one  can 
readily  see  that  our  chronicles  are  only  a  sort  of 
fiction  duller  than  the  popular  novels  so  eagerly 
read  ;  not  that  they  are  true,  but  they  deal  in  what 
we  long  to  have  the  truth.  Popular  beliefs,  in  time, 
come  to  be  superstitions,  and  create  gods  and  devils. 
Thus  Washington  is  deified  into  an  impossible 
man,  and  Aaron  Burr  has  passed  into  a  like  impos 
sible  human  monster.  Through  the  same  process, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  one  of  our  truly  great,  has  almost 
gone  from  human  knowledge.  I  hear  of  him,  read 
of  him  in  eulogies  and  biographies,  and  fail  to 
recognize  the  man  I  encountered,  for  the  first  time, 
in  the  canvass  that  called  him  from  private  life  to 
be  President  of  the  then  disuniting  United  States. 

General  Robert  E.  Schenck  and  I  had  been  selected 
to  canvass  Southern  Illinois  in  behalf  of  free  soil  and 
Abraham  Lincoln.  That  part  of  Illinois  was  then 
known  as  Egypt,  and  in  our  missionary  labors  we 
learned  there  that  the  American  eagle  sometimes 


Abraham  Lincoln.  20 

lays  rotten  eggs.  Our  labors  on  the  stump  were 
closed  in  the  wigwam  at  Springfield,  a  few  nights 
previous  to  the  election.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  present, 
and  listened  with  intense  interest  to  Mr.  Schenck's 
able  argument.  I  followed  in  a  cheerful  review  of 
the  situation,  that  seemed  to  amuse  the  crowd,  and 
none  more  so  than  our  candidate  for  the  Presidency. 
We  were  both  invited  to  return  to  Springfield  for  the 
jubilee,  should  success  make  such  rejoicing  proper. 
We  did  return,  for  this  homely  son  of  toil  was  elect 
ed,  and  we  found  Springfield  drunk  with  delight. 
On  the  day  of  our  arrival  we  were  invited  to  a  sup 
per  at  the  house  of  the  President-elect.  It  was  a 
plain,  comfortable  frame  structure,  and  the  supper 
was  an  old-fashioned  mess  of  indigestion,  composed 
mainly  of  cake,  pies  and  chickens,  the  last  evidently 
killed  in  the  morning,  to  be  eaten,  as  best  they  might, 
that  evening. 

After  the  supper,  we  sat  far  into  the  night,  talking 
over  the  situation.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  the  homeliest 
man  I  ever  saw.  His  body  seemed  to  me  a  huge 
skeleton  in  clothes.  Tall  as  he  was,  his  hands  and 
feet  looked  out  of  proportion,  so  long  and  clumsy 
were  they.  Every  movement  was  awkward  in  the 
extreme.  He  sat  with  one  leg  thrown  over  the 
other,  and  the  pendant  foot  swung  almost  to  the 
floor.  And  all  the  while  two  little  boys,  his  sons, 
clambered  over  those  legs,  patted  his  cheeks,  pulled 
his  nose,  and  poked  their  fingers  in  his  eyes,  without 
causing  reprimand  or  even  notice.  He  had  a  face 


30  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

that  defied  artistic  skill  to  soften  or  idealize.  The 
multiplicity  of  photographs  and  engravings  makes  it 
familiar  to  the  public.  It  was  capable  of  few  expres 
sions,  but  those  were  extremely  striking.  When  in 
repose,  his  face  was  dull,  heavy,  and  repellent.  It 
brightened  like  a  lit  lantern  when  animated.  His 
dull  eyes  would  fairly  sparkle  with  fun,  or  express  as 
kindly  a  look  as  I  ever  saw,  when  moved  by  some 
matter  of  human  interest. 

I  soon  discovered  that  this  strange  and  strangely 
gifted  man,  while  not  at  all  cynical,  was  a  skeptic. 
His  view  of  human  nature  was  low,  but  good-natured. 
I  could  not  call  it  suspicious,  but  he  believed  only 
what  he  saw.  This  low  estimate  of  humanity  blinded 
him  to  the  South.  He  could  not  understand  that  men 
would  get  up  in  their  wrath  and  fight  for  an  idea. 
He  considered  the  movement  South  as  a  sort  of  po 
litical  game  of  bluff,  gotten  up  by  politicians,  and 
meant  solely  to  frighten  the  North.  He  believed 
that  when  the  leaders  saw  their  efforts  in  that  direc 
tion  were  unavailing,  the  tumult  would  subside. 
"  They  won't  give  up  the  offices,"  I  remember  he 
said,  and  added,  "  Were  it  believed  that  vacant  places 
could  be  had  at  the  North  Pole,  the  road  there  would 
be  lined  with  dead  Virginians." 

He  unconsciously  accepted  for  himself  and  party 
the  same  low  line  that  he  awarded  the  South.  Ex 
pressing  no  sympathy  for  the  slave,  he  laughed  at 
the  Abolitionists  as  a  disturbing  element  easily 
controlled,  and  without  showing  any  dislike  for  the 


Abraham  Lincoln.  31 

slaveholders,  said  only  that  their  ambition  was  to 
be  restrained. 

I  gathered  more  of  this  from  what  Mrs.  Lincoln 
said  than  from  the  utterances  of  our  host.  This  good 
lady  injected  remarks  into  the  conversation  with 
more  force  than  logic,  and  was  treated  by  her  hus 
band  with  about  the  same  good-natured  indifference 
with  which  he  regarded  the  troublesome  boys. 
There  was  an  amusing  assumption  of  the  coming 
Administration  in  the  wife's  talk  that  struck  me  as 
very  womanly,  but  somewhat  ludicrous.  For  in 
stance,  she  said,  "  The  country  will  find  how  we 
regard  that  Abolition  sneak  Seward."  Mr.  Lincoln 
pat  the  remark  aside,  very  much  as  he  did  the  hand 
of  one  of  his  boys  when  that  hand  invaded  his  capa 
cious  mouth. 

We  were  not  at  a  loss  to  get  at  the  fact,  and  the 
reason  for  it,  in  the  man  before  us.  Descended  from 
the  poor  whites  of  a  slave  State,  through  ifiany  gen 
erations,  he  inherited  the  contempt,  if  not  tli^-hatred, 
held  by  that  class  for  the  negro.  A  self-made  man, 
with  scarcely  a  winter's  schooling  fi*om  books,  his 
strong  nature  was  built  on  what  he  inherited,  and  he 
could  no  more  feel  sympathy  for  that  wretched  race 
than  he  could  for  the  horse  he  worked  or  the  hog 
he  killed.  In  this  he  exhibited  the  marked  trait 
that  governed  his  public  life.  He  never  rose  above 
the  mass  he  influenced,  and  was  strong  with  the 
people  from  the  fact  that  he  accompanied  the  com 
mons  without  any  attempt  to  lead,  save  in  the  direc- 


;5->  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

tion  they  sought  to  follow.  He  knew,  and  saw 
clearly,  that  the  people  of  the  free  States  had  not 
only  no  sympathy  with  the  abolition  of  slavery,  but 
held  fanatics,  as  Abolitionists  were  called,  in  utter 
abhorrence.  While  it  seemed  a  cheap  philanthropy, 
and  therefore  popular,  to  free  another  man's  slave, 
the  fact  was  that  it  was  not  another  man's  slave. 
The  unrequited  toil  of  the  slave  was  more  valuable 
to  the  North  than  to  the  South.  With  our  keen  bus 
iness  instincts,  we,  of  the  free  States,  utilized  the 
brutal  work  of  the  masters.  They  made,  without 
saving-,  all  that  we  accumulated.  The  Abolitionist 
was  hunted  and  imprisoned,  under  the  shadow  of 
Bunker  Hill  Monument,  as  keenly  as  he  was  tracked 
by  blood-hounds  at  the  South.  Wendell  Phillips,  the 
silver-tongued  advocate  of  human  rights,  was,  while 
Mr.  Lincoln  talked  to  us,  being  ostracized  at  Boston, 
and  rotten-egged  at  Cincinnati.  A  keen  knowledge 
of  human  nature  in  a  jury,  more  than  a  knowledge 
of  law,  in  his  case,  had  put  our  President-elect  at  the 
head  of  his  profession,  and  this  same  knowledge  made 
him  master  of  the  situation  when  he  came  to  mould 
into  action  the  stirred  impulses  of  the  people. 

I  felt  myself  studying  this  strange,  quaint,  great 
man  with  keen  interest.  A  newly-fashioned  individ 
uality  had  come  within  the  circle  of  my  observation. 
I  saw  a  man  of  coarse,  tough  fibre,  without  culture, 
and  yet  of  such  force  that  every  observation  was 
original,  incisive  and  striking,  while  his  illustra 
tions  were  as  quaint  as  -<3£sop's  fables.  He  had  little 


Abraham  Lincoln.  33 

taste  for,  and  less  knowledge  of  literature,  and  while 
well  up  in  what  we  call  history,  limited  his  acquaint 
ance  with  fiction  to  that  sombre  poem  known  as 

"Why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal  be  proud  ?" 

It  was  well  for  us  that  our  President  proved  to  be 
what  I  then  recognized.  He  was  equal  to  the  awful 
strain  put  upon  him  in  the  four  years  of  terrible 
strife  that  followed.  A  man  of  delicate  mould  and 
sympathetic  nature,  such  as  Chase  or  Seward,  would 
have  broken  down,  not  from  overwork,  although 
that  was  terrible,  but  from  tjie  over-anxiety  that 
kills.  Lincoln  had  none  of  this.  He  faced  and  lived 
through  the  awful  responsibility  of  the  situation 
with  the  high  courage  and  comfort  that  came  of  in 
difference.  At  the  darkest  period,  for  us,  of  the  war, 
when  the  roar  of  the  enemy's  cannon  was  throbbing 
along  the  walls  of  our  Capitol,  I  heard  him  say  to 
General  Schenck,  "  I  enjoy  my  rations,  and  sleep  the 
sleep  of  the  innocent." 

Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  believe,  could  not  be  made  to 
believe,  that  the  South  meant  secession  and  war. 
When  I  told  him,  subsequently  to  this  conversation, 
at  a  dinner-table  in  Chicago,  where  the  Hon.  Han 
nibal  Hamlin,  General  Schenck,  and  others,  were 
guests,  that  the  Southern  people  were  in  dead  ear 
nest,  meant  war,  and  I  doubted  whether  he  would  be 
inaugurated  at  Washington,  he  laughed  and  said  the 
fall  of  pork  at  Cincinnati  had  affected  me.  I  became 
somewhat  irritated,  and  told  him  that  in  ninety  days 


34  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union, 

the  land  would  be  whitened  with  tents.  He  said  in 
reply  : 

"  Well,  we  won't  jump  that  ditch  until  we  come 
to  it,"  and  then,  after  a  pause,  added,  "  I  must  run 
the  machine  as  I  find  it." 

I  take  no  credit  to  myself  for  this  power  of 
prophecy;  I  only  said  what  every  one  acquainted 
with  the  Southern  people  knew,  and  the  wonder  is 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  should  have  been  so  blind  to  the 
coming1  storm. 

The  epigrammatic  force  of  his  expressions  was 
remarkable,  as  was  also  the  singular  purity  of  his 
language.  What  he  said  was  so  original  that  I 
reduced  much  of  it  to  writing  at  the  time.  One  of 
these  sayings  was  this  on  secession  : 

"  If  our  Southern  friends  are  right  in  their  claim 
the  framers  of  the  Government  carefully  planned 
the  rot  that  now  threatens  their  work  with  destruc 
tion.  If  one  State  has  the  right  to  withdraw  at 
will,  certainly  a  majority  have  the  right,  and  we 
have  the  result  given  us  of  the  States  being  able  to 
force  out  one  State.  That  is  logical." 

We  remained  at  Springfield  several  days,  and  then 
accompanied  the  President-elect,  on  his  invitation,  to 
Chicago.  The  invitation  was  so  pressing  that  I  be 
lieved  Mr.  Lincoln  intended  calling  General  Schenck 
to  his  Cabinet.  I  am  still  of  this  opinion,  and  attrib 
ute  the  change  to  certain  low  intrigues  hatched  at 
Chicago  by  the  newly  created  politicians  of  that 
locality,  who  saw  in  the  coming  Administration 


Abraham  Lincoln.  35 

opportunities  for  plunder  that  Kobert  C.  Schenck's 
known  probity  would  have  blasted. 

Subsequent  to  the  supper  we  had  gatherings  at 
Mr.  Lincoln's  old  law  office  and  at  the  political 
headquarters,  at  which  men  only  formed  the  com 
pany;  and  before  those  good  honest  citizens,  who 
fairly  worshipped  their  distinguished  neighbor,  Mr. 
Lincoln  gave  way  to  his  natural  bent  for  fun,  and 
told  very  amusing  stories,  always  in  quaint  illustra 
tion  of  the  subject  under  discussion,  no  one  of  which 
will  bear  printing.  They  were  coarse,  and  were 
saved  from  vulgarity  only  by  being  so  strangely  in 
point,  and  told  not  for  the  sake  of  the  telling  as  if  he 
enjo}^ed  the  stories  themselves,  but  that  they  were, 
as  I  have  said,  so  quaintly  illustrative. 

The  man  who  could  open  a  Cabinet  meeting, 
called  to  discuss  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  by 
reading  Artemus  Ward,  who  called  for  a  comic  song 
on  the  bloody  battlefield,  was  the  same  man  who 
could  guide,  with  clear  mind  and  iron  hand,  the  diplo 
macy  that  kept  off  the  fatal  interference  of  Europe, 
while  conducting  at  home  the  most  horrible  of  civil 
wars  that  ever  afflicted  a  people.  He  reached  with 
ease  the  highest  and  the  lowest  level,  and  on  the 
very  field  that  he  shamed  with  a  ribald  song,  he  left 
a  record  of  eloquence  never  reached  by  human  lips 
before. 

There  is  a  popular  belief  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  of  so  kind  and  forgiving  a  nature  that  his  gen 
tler  impulses  interfered  with  his  duty.  In  proof  of 


36  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

this,  attention  is  called  to  the  fact  that  through  all 
the  war  he  never  permitted  a  -man  to  be  shot  for 
desertion.  The  belief  is  erroneous.  There  never 
lived  a  man  who  could  say  "  no  "  with  readier  facility, 
and  abide  by  his  saying- with  more  firmness,  than 
President  Lincoln.  His  good-natured  manner  mis 
led  the  common  mind.  It  covered  as  firm  a  char 
acter  as  nature  ever  clad  with  human  flesh,  and  I 
doubt  whether  Mr.  Lincoln  had  at  all  a  kind,  forgiv 
ing  nature.  Such  traits  are  not  common  to  success 
ful  leaders.  They,  like  Hannibal,  melt  their  way 
through  rocks  with  hot  vinegar,  not  honey.  And 
that  good-natured  way  covers  a  selfish  more  gen 
erally  than  a  generous  disposition.  Men  instinct 
ively  find  it  easier  to  glide  comfortably  through  life 
with  a  round,  oily,  elastic  exterior,  than  in  an  angu 
lar,  hard  one.  Such  give  way  in  trifles  and  hold 
their  own  tenaciously  in  all  the  more  serious  sacrifices 
demanded  for  the  good  or  comfort  of  others.  If  one 
doubts  what  I  here  assert,  let  such  turn  and  study 
the  hard,  angular,  coarse  face  of  this  great  man. 
Nature  never  gave  that  face  as  an  indication  of  a 
tender,  yielding  disposition.  Nor  had  his  habits  of 
life  in  any  respect  softened  its  hard  lines.  Hazlett 
tells  us,  with  truth,  that  while  we  may  control  the 
voice  and  discipline  the  manner,  the  face  is  beyond 
command.  Day  and  night,  waking  and  asleep,  our 
character  is  being  traced  there,  to  be  read  by  all 
men  who  care  to  make  the  face  a  study.  It  is 
common,  for  example,  for  the  President  to  be  in 


Abraham  Lincoln.  37 

continual  trouble  over  supposed  promises  to  office- 
seekers.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  none  of  this.  He  would 
refuse  so  clearly  and  positively  that  it  left  no  doubt 
and  no  hope,  and  yet  in  such  a  pleasant  manner  that 
the  applicant  left  with  no  ill  feeling-  in  his  disappoint 
ment.  I  heard  Secretary  Seward  say,  in  this  connec 
tion,  that  President  Lincoln  "  had  a  cunning-  that  was 
genius."  As  for  his  steady  refusal  to  sanction  the 
death  penalty  in  cases  of  desertion,  there  was  far 
more  policy  than  kind  feeling  in  this  course.  To 
assert  the  contrary  is  to  detract  from  Lincoln's  force 
of  character  as  well  as  intellect.  As  Secretary 
Chase  said  at  the  time,  "  Such  kindness  to  the 
criminal  is  cruelty  to .  the  army,  for  it  encourages 
the  bad  to  leave  the  brave  and  patriotic  unsup 
ported." 

The  fact  is  that  our  war  President  was  not  lost  in 
his  high  admiration  of  brigadiers  and  major-gen 
erals,  and  had  a  positive  dislike  for  their  methods 
and  the  despotism  on  which  an  army  is  based.  He 
,knew  that  he  was  dependent  on  volunteers  for 
soldiers,  and  to  force  on  such  the  stern  discipline 
of  the  regular  army  was  to  render  the  service 
unpopular.  And  it  pleased  him  to  be  the  source  of 
mercy,  as  well  as  the  fountain  of  honor,  in  this 
direction. 

I  was  sitting  with  General  Dan.  Tyler,  of  Connect 
icut,  in  the  ante-chamber  of  the  War  Department, 
shortly  after  the  adjournment  of  the  Buell  Court  of 
Inquiry,  of  which  we  had  been  members,  when  Pres- 


38  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

ident  Lincoln  came  in  from  the  room  of  Secretary 
Stanton.  Seeing-  us,  he  said : 

"  Well,  gentlemen,  you  did  not  survive  the  war, 
and  now  have  you  any  matter  worth  reporting, 
after  such  a  protracted  investigation  ?" 

"  I  think  so,  Mr.  President,"  replied  General 
Tyler.  "  We  had  it  proven  that  Bragg,  with  less 
than  10,000  men,  drove  your  83,000  under  Buell  back 
from  before  Chattanooga  down  to  the  Ohio,  at 
Louisville,  marched  round  us  twice,  then  doubled  us 
up  at  Perryville,  and  finally  got  out  of  Kentucky 
with  all  his  plunder." 

"Now,  Tyler,"  said  the  President,  "what  is  the 
meaning  of  all  this ;  what  is  the  lesson  ?  Don't  our 
men  inarch  as  well,  and  fight  as  well,  as  these 
rebels  ?  If  not,  there  is  a  fault  somewhere.  We  are 
all  of  the  same  family — same  sort." 

"Yes,  there  is  a  lesson,"  replied  General  Tyler. 
"  We  are  of  the  same  sort,  but  subject  to  a  different 
handling.  Bragg 's  little  force  was  superior  to  our 
larger  number,  because  he  had  it  under  control. 
If  a  man  left  his  ranks,  he  was  punished ;  if  he 
deserted,  he  was  shot.  We  had  nothing-  of  that 
sort.  If  we  attempt  to  shoot  a  deserter,  you  pardon 
him,  and  our  army  is  without  discipline." 

The  President  looked  perplexed. 

"Why  do  you  interfere?"  General  Tyler  con 
tinued.  "  Congress  has  taken  from  you  all  respon 
sibility." 

"  Yes,"    answered    the     President,    impatiently, 


Abraham  Lincoln.  39 

"  Congress  has  taken  the  responsibility,  and  left  the 
women  to  howl  about  me,"  and  so  he  strode  away, 
and  General  Tyler  remarked  that  as  it  was  not 
necessary  for  the  President  to  see  one  of  these 
women,  to  jeopardize  an  army  on  such  grounds 
was  very  feeble.  The  fact  was,  however,  as  I  have 
said,  the  President  had  other  and  stronger  motives 
for  his  conduct. 

Of  President  Lincoln's  high  sense  of  justice,  or 
rather  fair  play,  I  have  a  vivid  recollection.  Previ 
ous  to  Lee's  invasion  of  Pennsylvania,  rumors  of 
which  reached  Washington  in  advance  of  that  sui 
cidal  movement  on  the  part  of  the  Confederates,  Gen 
eral  Halleck  issued  one  of  his  non-committal  orders 
to  General  Schenck,  then  in  command  at  Baltimore, 
advising-  the  concentration  of  our  troops  at  Harper's 
Ferry.  This  referred  especially  to  General  Milroy's 
10,000  men  at  Winchester.  I  was  sent,  as  Chief  of 
Staff,  to  look  into  Milroy's  condition,  and  empowered 
to  let  him  remain  or  order  him  back,  as  I  might  see 
fit.  Winchester,  as  a  fortified  place,  was  a  military 
blunder.  It  covered  nothing,  while  a  force  there  was 
in  constant  peril.  I  had  learned  enough  in  the  ser 
vice  to  know  that  a  subordinate  should  take  no 
chances,  and  I  ordered  Milroy  back  to  Harper's  Fer 
ry.  General  Schenck,  at  Milroy's  earnest  request, 
countermanded  my  order,  and  three  days  after,  Mil 
roy  found  himself  surrounded  by  Lee's  entire  army. 
The  gallant  old  soldier  cut  his  way  out,  with  his  en 
tire  command.  Of  course  there  was  a  heavy  loss  of 


40  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

material.  For  this,  Milroy  was  put  under  arrest  by 
Secretary  Stanton,  and  court-martialled  by  Halleck. 
Milroy  shielded  himself  behind  Schenck's  order,  so 
that  the  court  convened  was  really  trying  my  gen 
eral  without  the  advantages  given*  him,  as  defendant, 
of  being  heard  in  his  defence.  General  Schenck  was 
summoned  to  appear,  and,  instead  of  appearing,  drew 
up  a  protest,  that  he  directed  me  not  only  to  take 
to  the  President,  but  read  to  him,  fearing  that  it 
would  be  pigeon-holed  for  consideration  wrhen  consid 
eration  would  be  too  late.  It  was  late  in  the  after 
noon,  and  riding  to  the  White  House,  I  was  told  the 
President  could  be  found  at  the  War  Department. 
I  met  him  coming  out,  and  delivered  my  message. 
"  Let  me  see  the  protest,"  said  the  President,  as  we 
walked  toward  the  Executive  Mansion. 

"  General  Schenck  ordered  me,  Mr.  President,  to 
read  it  to  you." 

"  Well,  I  can  read,"  he  responded,  sharply,  and  as 
he  was  General  Schenck's  superior  officer,  I  handed 
him  the  paper.  He  read  as  he  strode  along. 

Arriving  at  the  entrance  to  the  White  House,  we 
found  the  carriage  awaiting  to  carry  him  to  the  Sol 
diers'  Home,  where  he  was  then  spending  the  sum 
mer,  and  the  guard  detailed  to  escort  him  drawn  up 
in  front.  The  President  sat  down  upon  the  steps  of 
the  porch,  and  continued  his  study  of  the  protest.  I 
have  him  photographed  on  my  mind,  as  he  sat  there, 
and  a  strange  picture  he  presented.  His  long,  slen 
der  legs  were  drawn  up  until  his  knees  were  level 


Abraham  Lincoln.  41 

with  his  chin,  while  his  long  arms  held  the  paper, 
which  he  studied  regardless  of  the  crowd  before  him. 
He  read  on  to  the  end ;  then  looking-  up,  said  : 

"Piatt,  don't  you  think  that  you  and  Schenck  are 
squealing,  like  pigs,  before  you're  hurt  ?  " 

"No,  Mr.  President." 

"  Why,  I  am  the  Court  of  Appeal,"  he  continued, 
"and  do  you  think  I  am  going  to  have  an  injustice 
done  Schenck?" 

"  Before  the  appeal  can  be  heard,  a  soldier's  rep 
utation  will  be  blasted  by  a  packed  court,"  I  re 
sponded. 

"  Come,  now,"  he  exclaimed,  an  ugly  look  shading 
his  face,  "you  and  I  are  lawyers,  and  know  the 
meaning  of  the  word  '  packed.'  I  don't  want  to  hear 
it  from  your  lips  again.  What's  the  matter  with 
the  court?" 

"It  is  illegally  organized  by  General  Halleck." 

"  Halleck's  act  is  mine." 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,  Mr.  President,  the  Rules  and 
Regulations  direct  that  in  cases  of  this  sort  you  shall 
select  the  court ;  you  cannot  delegate  that  to  a  sub 
ordinate  any  more  than  you  can  the  pardoning 
power;"  and  opening  the  book,  I  pointed  to  the 
article. 

"That  is  a  point,"  he  said,  slowly  rising.  "Do 
you  know,  Colonel,  that  I  have  been  so  busy  with 
this  war  I  have  never  read  the  Regulations.  Give 
me  that  book,  and  I'll  study  them  to-night." 

"I  beg  your  pardon,   Mr.    President,"    I    said. 


42  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

giving-  him  the  book,  "but  in  the  meantime  my 
general  will  be  put  under  arrest  for  disobedience, 
and  the  mischief  will  be  done." 

"That's  so,"  he  replied.  "Here,  give  me  a 
pencil,"  and  tearing  off  a  corner  of  the  paper  Gen 
eral  Schenck  had  sent  him,  he  wrote : 

' '  All  proceedings  before  the  court  convened  to  try  General 
Milroy  are  suspended  until  further  orders.  A.  LINCOLN." 

The  next  morning  I  clanked  into  the  court-room 
with  my  triangular  order,  and  had  the  grim  satisfac 
tion  of  seeing  the  owls  in  epaulettes  file  out,  never 
to  be  called  together  again. 

With  all  his  awkwardness  of  manner,  and  utter 
disregard  of  social  conventionalities  that  seemed  to 
invite  familiarity,  there  was  something  about  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  that  enforced  respect.  No  man  pre 
sumed  on  the  apparent  invitation  to  be  other  than 
respectful.  I  was  told  at  Springfield  that  this 
accompanied  him  through  life.  Among  his  rough 
associates,  when  young,  he  was  leader,  looked  up  to 
and  obeyed,  because  they  felt  of  his  muscle  and  his 
readiness  in  its  use.  Among  his  companions  at  the 
bar  it  was  attributed  to  his  ready  wit  which  kept 
his  duller  associates  at  a  distance.  The  fact  wras, 
however,  that  this  power  came  from  a  sense  of  reserve 
force  of  intellectual  ability  that  no  one  took  account 
of,  save  in  its  results.  Through  one  of  those  freaks 
of  nature  that  produce  a  Shakspeare  at  long  inter 
vals,  a  giant  had  been  born  to  the  poor  whites  of 
Kentucky,  and  the  sense  of  superiority  possessed 


Abraham  Lincoln.  43 

President  Lincoln  at  all  times.  Unobtruding,  and 
even  unassuming-,  as  he  was,  he  was  not  modest  in 
his  assertion,  and  he  as  quietly  directed  Seward  in 
shaping-  our  delicate  and  difficult  foreign  policy  as  he 
controlled  Chase  in  the  Treasury  and  Edwin  M. 
Stanton  in  the  War  Department.  These  men,  great 
as  they  were,  felt  their  inferiority  to  their  master, 
and  while  all  three  were  eaten  into,  and  weakened  by, 
anxiety,  he  ate  and  slept  and  jested  as  if  his  brain 
and  will  did  not  carry  the  fate  of  an  empire. 

I  never  saw  him  angry  but  once,  and  I  had  no  wish 
to  see  a  second  exhibition  of  his  wrath.  We  were  in 
command  of  what  was  called  the  Middle  Department, 
with  headquarters  at  Baltimore.  General  Schenck, 
with  the  intense  loyalty  which  distinguished  that 
eminent  soldier,  shifted  the  military  sympathy  from 
the  aristocracy  of  Maryland  to  the  Union  men,  and 
made  the  eloquent  Henry  Winter  Davis  and  the 
well-known  jurist  Judge  Bond  our  associates  and  ad 
visers.  These  gentlemen  could  not  understand  why, 
having  such  entire  command  of  Maryland,  the  Gov 
ernment  did  not  make  it  a  free  State,  and  so,  taking 
the  property  from  the  disloyal,  render  them  weak 
and  harmless,  and  bring  the  border  of  free  States  to 
the  capital  of  the  Union.  The  fortifications  about 
Baltimore,  used  heretofore  to  threaten  that  city,  now 
under  the  influence  of  Davis,  Bond,  Wallace,  and 
others,  had  their  guns  turned  outward  for  the  pro 
tection  of  the  place,  and  it  seemed  only  necessary  to 
inspire  the  negroes  with  faith  in  us  as  liberators  to 


44  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

perfect  the  work.  The  first  intimation  I  received 
that  this  policy  of  freeing  Maryland  was  distasteful 
to  the  Administration  came  from  Secretary  Stanton. 
I  had  told  him  what  we  thought,  and  what  we  hoped 
to  accomplish.  I  noticed  an  amused  expression  on 
the  face  of  the  War  Secretary,  and  when  I  ended,  he 
said  dryly : 

"  You  and  Schenck  had  better  attend  to  your  own 
business." 

I  asked  him  what  he  meant  by  "our  business." 
He  said,  "  Obeying  orders,  that's  all." 

Not  long  after  this  talk  with  Mr.  Stanton,  the  gal 
lant  General  William  Birney,  son  of  the  eminent 
James  G.  Birney,  came  into  Maryland  to  recruit  for 
a  negro  brigade,  then  first  authorized.  I  directed 
Birney  to  recruit  slaves  only.  He  said  he  would  be 
glad  to  do  so,  but  wanted  authority  in  writing  from 
General  Schenck.  I  tried  my  general,  and  he  re 
fused,  saying  that  such  authority  could  come  only 
from  the  War  Department,  as  Birney  was  acting 
directly  under  its  instructions.  I  could  not  move 
him,  and  knowing  that  he  had  a  leave  of  absence  for 
a  few  days,  to  transact  some  business  at  Boston,  I 
wralted  patiently  until  he  was  fairly  off,  and  then  is 
sued  the  order  to  General  Birney.  The  general  took 
an  idle  Government  steamer,  and  left  for  the  part  of 
Maryland  where  the  slaves  did  most  abound.  Birney 
was  scarcely  out  of  sight  before  I  awakened  to  the 
opposition  I  had  excited.  The  Hon.  Reverdy  John 
son  appeared  at  headquarters,  heading  a  delega- 


Abraham  Lincoln.  45 

tion  of  solid  citizens,  who  wanted  the  Union  and 
slavery  saved  one  and  inseparable.  I  gave  them 
scant  comfort,  and  they  left  for  Washington.  That 
afternoon  came  a  telegram  from  the  War  Depart 
ment,  asking  who  was  in  command  at  Baltimore.  I 
responded  that  General  Schenck  being  absent  for  a 
few  days  only  had  left  affairs  in  control  of  his  Chief 
of  Staff.  Then  came  a  curt  summons,  ordering  me 
to  appear  at  the  War  Department.  I  obeyed,  arriv 
ing  in  the  evening  at  the  old,  sombre  building.  Being 
informed  that  the  Secretary  was  at  the  Executive 
Mansion,  I  repaired  there,  sent  in  my  card,  and  was 
at  once  shown  into  the  presence,  not  of  Mr.  Stanton, 
but  of  the  President.  I  do  not  care  to  recall  the 
words  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  I  wrote  them  out  that  night, 
for  I  was  threatened  a  shameful  dismissal  from  the 
service,  and  I  intended  appealing  to  the  public. 
They  were  exceedingly  severe,  for  the  President  was 
in  a  rage.  I  was  not  allowed  a  word  in  my  own 
defence,  and  was  only  permitted  to  say  that  I  would 
countermand  my  order  as  well  as  I  could.  1  was 
saved  cashiering  through  the  interference  of  Stanton 
and  Chase,  and  the  further  fact  that  a  row  over  such 
a  transaction  at  that  time  would  have  been  extremely 
awkward. 

My  one  act  made  Maryland  a  free  State.  Word 
went  out  and  spread  like  wildfire  that  "  Mr.  Linkum 
was  a  callin'  on  de  slaves  to  fight  foh  freedum,"  and 
the  hoe-handle  was  dropped,  never  again  to  be  taken 
up  by  unrequited  toil.  The  poor  creatures  poured 


46  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

into  Baltimore  with  their  families,  on  foot,  on  horse 
back,  in  old  wagons,  and  even  on  sleds  stolen  from 
their  masters.  The  late  masters  became  clamorous 
for  compensation,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  ordered  a  commis 
sion  to  assess  damages.  Secretary  Stanton  put  in  a 
proviso  that  those  cases  only  should  be  considered 
wherein  the  claimant  could  take  the  iron-bound  oath 
of  allegiance.  Of  course  no  slaves  were  paid  for. 

The  President  never  forgave  me.  Subsequently, 
when  General  Schenck  resigned  command  to  take 
his  seat  in  Congress,  the  Union  men  of  Maryland 
and  Delaware,  headed  by  Judge  Bond,  waited  on  the 
President  with  a  request  that  I  be  promoted  to 
brigadier-general,  and  put  in  command  of  the  Middle 
Department.  Mr.  Lincoln  heard  them  patiently, 
and  then  refused,  saying: 

"  Schenck  and  Piatt  are  good  fellows,  and  if  there 
were  any  rotten  apples  in  the  barrel  they'd  be  sure 
to  hook  'em  out.  But  they  run  their  machine  on  too 
high  a  level  for  me.  They  never  could  understand 
that  I  was  boss." 

Edwin  M.  Stanton  told  me,  after  he  had  left  the 
War  Department,  that  when  he  sent  a  list  of  officers 
to  the  President,  my  name  included,  as  worthy  of 
promotion,  Lincoln  would  quietly  draw  his  pen 
through  my  name.  I  do  not  blame  him.  His  great, 
thoughtful  brain  saw  at  the  time  what  has  taken  us 
years  to  discover  and  appreciate.  He  understood  the 
people  he  held  to  a  death  struggle  in  behalf  of  the 
great  Republic,  and  knew  that,  while  the  masses 


Abraham  Lincoln.  47 

would  fight  to  the  bitter  end  in  behalf  of  the  Union, 
they  would  not  kill  their  own  brothers,  and  spread 
mourning-  over  the  entire  land,  in  behalf  of  the  negro. 
He,  therefore,  kept  the  cause  of  the  Union  to  the 
front,  and  wrote  to  Horace  Greeley  the  memorable 
words  :  "  If  to  preserve  the  Union  it  is  necessary  to 
destroy  slavery,  slavery  will  be  destroyed  ;  and  if  to 
preserve  the  Union  slavery  is  to  be  maintained, 
slavery  will  be  maintained."  He  well  knew  that  the 
North  was  not  fighting  to  liberate  slaves,  nor  the 
South  to  preserve  slavery.  The  people  of  the  slave 
States  plunged  into  a  bloody  war  to  build  a  Southern 
empire  of  their  own,  and  the  people  of  the  North 
fought  to  preserve  the  Government  of  the  fathers  on 
all  the  land  the  fathers  left  us.  In  that  awful  con 
flict,  slavery  went  to  pieces. 

We  are  quick  to  forget  the  facts,  and  slow  to  recog 
nize  the  truths  that  knock  from  under  us  our  pre 
tentious  claims  to  a  high  philanthropy.  As  I  have 
said,  Abolitionism  was  not  only  unpopular  when  the 
war  broke  out,  but  it  was  'detested.  The  minority 
that  elected  Mr.  Lincoln  had  fallen  heir  to  the  Whig 
votes  of  the  North,  and  while  pledging  itself,  in  plat 
forms  and  speeches,  to  a  solemn  resolve  to  keep  sla 
very  under  the  Constitution  in  the  States,  restricted 
its  anti-slavery  purpose  to  the  prevention  of  its  spread 
into  the  Territories.  I  remember  when  the  Hutchin- 
sons  were  driven  from  the  camps  of  the  Potomac 
Army  by  the  soldiers  for  singing  their  abolition 
songs,  and  I  remember  well  that  for  nearty  two  years 


48  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

of  our  service  as  soldiers  we  were  engaged  in  return 
ing  slaves  to  their  masters,  when  the  poor  creatures 
sought  shelter  in  our  lines. 

President  Lincoln's  patriotism  and  wisdom  rose 
above  impulse,  or  his  positive  temperament  and  in 
tellect  kept  him  free  of  mere  sentiment.  Looking 
back  now  at  this  grand  man,  and  the  grave  situation 
at  the  time,  I  am  ashamed  of  my  act  of  insubordina 
tion,  and  although  it  freed  Maryland,  it  now  lowers 
me  in  my  own  estimation.  Had  the  President  carried 
his  threat  of  punishment  into  execution  it  would  have 
been  just. 

The  popular  mind  is  slow  of  study,  and  I  fear  it 
will  be  long  ere  it  learns  that,  while  an  eminent  man 
wins  our  admiration  through  his  great  qualities,  he 
can  hold  our  love  only  by  his  human  weaknesses, 
that  make  him  one  of  ourselves.  We  are  told  that, 
with  the  multitude,  nothing  is  so  successful  as  success, 
yet  there  is  often  more  heroism  in  failure  than  in 
triumph.  The  one  is  frequently  the  result  of  acci 
dent,  while  the  other  holds  in  itself  all  that  endears 
the  martyr  to  the  human  heart.  The  unfortunate 
Hector  is,  after  all,  the  hero  of  the  Iliad,  and  not  the 
invulnerable  Achilles,  and  by  our  popular  process  of 
eliminating  all  human  weakness  from  our  great  men 
we  weaken,  and,  in  a  measure,  destroy  their  immor 
tality,  for  we  destroy  them.  As  we  accept  the  sad, 
rugged,  homely  face,  and  love  it  for  what  it  is,  we 
should  accept  it  as  it  was,  the  grandest  figure  loom 
ing  up  in  our  history  as  a  Nation.  Washington 


Abraham  Lincoln.  49 

taught  the  world  to  know  us,  Lincoln  taught  us  to 
know  ourselves.  The  first  won  for  us  our  indepen 
dence,  the  last  wrought  out  our  manhood  and  self- 
respect. 


EDWIN  M.  STANTOK 

IT  was  my  good  fortune  to  know  this  eminent  man, 
intimately,  during1  the  greater  part  of  his  public  life. 
My  brother-in-law,  N.  C.  Read,  while  one  of  the 
Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Ohio,  when  those 
judges  had  circuits  over  the  State,  came  to  know 
Stanton,  at  Steubenville,  through  his  relative,  Judge 
Tappan,  and  liking  the  youth,  had  him  made  report 
er  to  the  court  in  bane  at  Columbus.  This  was  in 
1842,  and  my  pursuit  of  pleasure  and  Stan  ton's 
duties  brought  us  together  at  the  State  capital  every 
winter  for  several  years.  I  sought  Columbus  during 
the  holidays,  while  Stanton,  one  of  the  most  indus 
trious  of  men,  worked  there,  not  only  at  his  official 
duties,  but  in  perfecting  himself  in  a  profession  that 
soon  made  him  conspicuous  as  one  of  its  leaders. 
Often,  during  the  summer,  he  found  relaxation  at 
Judge  Read's,  and  my  home,  on  the  Mac-o-chee, 
where  the  two  were  wont  to  pass  their  vacation. 

Stanton,  when  I  first  knew  him,  and  for  years 
after,  was  young,  ardent,  and  of  a  most  joyous  na 
ture.  Possessed  of  a  keen  sense  of  humor,  he  was 
free  and  eager  in  its  enjoyment,  and,  strange  as  it 
may  sound  to  those  who  knew  him  in  later  life,  had  a 


EDWIN   M.    ST ANTON. 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  51 

laugh  so  hearty  and  contagious  that  it  became  char 
acteristic.  He  was  not  only  a  hard  student  in  the 
line  of  his  profession,  but  had  a  taste  for  light  litera 
ture  that  made  his  conversation  extremely  attrac 
tive. 

The  truth  is,  Stanton's  imagination  was  through 
life  the  larger  and  most  potent  quality  of  his  mind, 
and  from  first  to  last  he  lived  in  a  world  so  tinctured 
by  it,  that  his  thoughts  and  acts  were  mysteries  to 
the  commonplace,  matter-of-fact  minds  about  him. 
He  shared  -this  peculiarity  with  William  H.  Seward, 
and  the  two  made  up  a  part  of  President  Lincoln's 
Cabinet  quite  distinctive  from  the  other  half  com 
posed  of  Lincoln  himself  and  Salmon  P.  Chase. 
The  President  and  his  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
while  dissimilar  in  many  respects,  were  one  in  the  way 
they  regarded  what  the  world  is  pleased  to  call  facts. 
A  dollar,  for  example,  to  Mr.  Chase  was  an  unit  of 
value,  as  seen  by  a  banker.  In  the  eyes  of  Stanton  it 
represented  a  hard  day's  labor,  and  he  saw  back  of  it 
the  bread-winner,  and  all  that  depends  on  that  word. 
A  battle  to  the  President  was  a  killing  and  wounding 
of  a  certain  number  of  men,  and  the  consequences,  to 
be  counted,  like  a  sum  in  arithmetic.  To  Stanton  or 
Seward  it  told  of  forming  empire,  for  or  againt  his 
cause,  and  each  felt  that  he  had  a  hand  in  making 
history,  that  would  go  to  record  in  a  government  on 
which  rested  the  happiness  and  prosperity  of  untold 
millions. 

Working  from  such  widely  separated  planes,  it  is 


52  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

singular  how  well  they  worked  tog-ether.  The  truth 
is,  however,  that  human  events  are  more  apt  to  be 
distorted  when  seen  without  this  poetic  atmosphere 
than  when  bereft  of  its  proportionizing  qualities,  if  I 
may  coin  a  word  to  express  my  meaning-.  The 
Gradgrinds  of  life  are  half  blind,  and  altogether 
stupid,  from  living  in  a  horizon  narrowed  to  a  hu 
manity  of  Gradgrinds.  Stanton  was  impressed  with 
this  belief.  In  the  first  years  of  our  intimacy,  when 
to  both  of  us  it  was  a  luxury  to  be  alive,  he  told 
me  of  a  book  he  was  writing  in  the  odd  intervals  he 
snatched  from  less  agreeable  studies,  on  the  "Po 
etry  of  the  Bible." 

"  I  want  to  call  attention  to  the  fact,"  he  was  wont 
to  say,  in  his  earnest  manner,  "  that  God,  in  all  his 
communications  with  man,  clothed  his  language  in 
the  highest  imagery.  All  light,  and  all  color,  that 
make  life  beautiful  are  the  affair  of  a  little  nerve  God 
has  endowed  us  with  to  enjoy  his  precious  gifts  that 
after  all  live  only  in  our  brain.  This  principle,  I 
maintain,  runs  through  all,  and  the  highest  religion, 
if  not  the  only  religion,  is  in  a  true  appreciation  of 
God's  works.  Thus  we  work  our  way  through 
Nature  up  to  Nature's  God, " 

I  do  not  know  what  became  of  the  work  thus  nobly 
planned.  I  imagine  it  was  never  completed,  for 
Stanton  had  none  of  the  qualities  of  an  author. 
With  all  his  poetic  temperament  and  high  imagina 
tive  quality,  he  was  a  man  of  action  more  than  of 
thought,  and  long  before  his  dreamed-of  book,  on  the 


Edivin  M.  Stanton.  53 

"Poetry  of  God,"  was  finished,  he  found  himself 
plunged  into  the  arena  of  active  life,  where  he  moulded 
great  events,  leaving  to  others  their  record. 

It  seems  strange  to  look  back  and  contrast  the 
Stanton  of  that  early  day  with  the  hard,  bronze, 
historic  figure  of  a  War  Minister,  whose  great  brain 
conceived,  and  iron  hand  guided,  the  terrible  conflict 
that  ended  in  a  rebuilding  of  the  great  Republic. 

Groups  of  men  are  busy,  with  much  noise,  in 
building  each  a  monument  to  some  one  savior  of  the 
country.  This  is  the  faded  and  threadbare  supersti 
tion  of  a  barbarous  past,  when  the  heavy-boned  and 
hard-muscled  giant  of  a  leader  led  his  brutal  fighters 
on  to  victory,  long  before  the  qualities  of  mind  were 
recognized  that  made  the  delicate  Caesar  and  the 
little  Napoleon  masters  of  the  world.  In  the  hurry 
of  human  events  that  marks  our  modern  wars,  mere 
fighting  qualities,  even  of  the  best,  have  little  to  do 
in  bringing  about  great  results.  While  campaigns 
are  necessary,  the  resources  that  make  campaigns 
possible  are  of  more  importance,  and  the  men  of  the 
departments  who  sanction  plans,  select  leaders,  and 
furnish  the  means  are  the  real  heads  that  make  or 
mar  the  heroes,  and  are  to  be  awarded  the  honor  of 
success  or  the  blame  of  failure. 

The  strangest  part,  however,  as  I  have  said  in 
writing  these  lines,  is  to  look  back  and  contrast  the 
Stanton  of  my  earlier  knowledge  with  the  Stanton  of 
later  days.  I  cannot  divest  myself  of  the  feeling- 
that  I  am  considering  two  widely  dissimilar  men.  I 


54  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

can  see,  as  if  but  an  hour  since,  the  youthful  advo 
cate,  of  medium  size,  but  stout  of  build,  with  his  clean 
shaven  face,  and  eyes  gleaming-  through  glasses,  for 
he  was  near-sighted,  his  profusion  of  dark  hair,  ever 
dishevelled,  as  he  stood  Bible  in  hand,  under  the 
shade  of  the  hickories,  at  Mac-o-chee,  telling  us  of 
the  "  Poetry  of  God,"  and  the  road  to  heaven  through 
culture  and  goodness. 

Generous  and  impulsive  to  a  fault,  he  seemed  to 
carry  his  heart  in  an  open  hand.  I  remember  a  pil 
grimage  he  volunteered  for  me  to  Zanesville,  Ohio, 
to  reknit  a  love  affair  of  mine  after  I  had  been  cruelly 
jilted  by  a  lovely  girl.  Think,  if  one  can,  of  the 
awful  War  Secretary  on  such  a  mission ! 

An  absence  in  Europe  and  a  drifting  apart, sepa 
rated  us  for  a  time,  and  when  we  met  again  I  was 
called  upon  to  recognize  another  man  from  the 
Stanton  of  my  youth. 

It  was  at  Washington  we  met,  upon  the  streets, 
and  I  seized  the  old  Stanton  by  the  hand  with  a  cry 
of  delight.  For  a  second  the  old,  well-loved  gleam 
of  pleasure  lit  his  face,  and  then  it  faded  out,  and  a 
gloomy,  sad  expression  took  its  place,  and  the  Stan- 
ton  I  once  knew  was  gone  forever.  His  manner,  so 
cold,  reserved,  and  formal,  embarrassed  me.  It  was 
not  precisely  hostile,  it  was  more  an  indifference, 
that  annoyed.  I  knew  that  it  could  not  be  a  snub, 
but  I  felt  as  poor  Jack  Falstaff  felt,  when  the  sneak 
of  a  king  disowned  in  himself  the  noble,  roystering, 
generous  prince  of  Jack's  former  knowledge. 


Edwin  3L  Stanton.  55 

I  accompanied  Stanton  to  his  room  at  the  National 
Hotel,  and  all  the  while  I  saw  he  was  striving-  to  be 
pleasant  and  familiar,  and  that  the  effort  was  in 
vain.  Terminating-  the  interview  as  soon  as  I  con 
veniently  could,  I  left  him.  At  the  entrance  of  the 
hotel,  on  the  avenue  below,  I  remembered  a  message 
I  wished  to  give  him,  and  had  forgotten.  Hastily 
ascending  I  knocked  at  his  door,  and,  getting  no  an 
swer,  entered.  He  was  seated  at  the  table,  with  his 
face  hid  in  his  arm,  and  as  I  touched  his  shoulder  he 
looked  up.  To  my  amazement  his  face  was  distorted 
with  extreme  grief,  while  tears  seemed  to  blind  him. 
Shocked  and  astonished,  I  stammered  out  my  mes 
sage. 

"Yes,  yes,"  he  said,  wiping  his  eyes,  "it  is  very 
kind  of  you,  Donn,  but  not  now,  please,  not  now." 

To  those  who  knew  him,  as  the  great  War  Secre 
tary  of  later  life,  the  stern,  vindictive,  and  often  in 
manner  brutal  "organizer  of  victory,"  this  incident 
will  sound  incredible.  But  the  sweetest  wine  makes 
the  sourest  vinegar,  and  the  sensitive,  imaginative 
man,  in  making  his  fight  with  the  world,  had  passed 
to  what  I  saw  him.  This  change  dated  from  the 
death  of  his  first  wife,  the  dear  companion  of  his 
early  youth,  and  from  that  grief  he  never  entirely 
recovered. 

I  happened  to  be  at  Washington  when  Stanton 
was  called  to  the  Cabinet  of  President  Lincoln.  It 
was  a  strange  event.  Stanton  was  not  only  a  Dem 
ocrat  of  so  fierce  a  sort  that  his  democracy  seemed 


56  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

his  religion,  but  he  felt,  and  had  openly  expressed, 
his  contempt  for  Abraham  Lincoln.  I  remember  an 
instance  of  this  last  that  is  a  painful  memory,  looking 
back,  as  I  do,  with  loving  admiration  for  both  these 
great  men.  Stanton  had  won  his  way  to  the  front  as 
an  able  advocate,  and  found  himself  leading  counsel 
in  an  important  case  involving  millions.  He  learned, 
a  few  moments  before  going  to  trial,  that  Lincoln 
had  been  retained,  and  expected  to  make  an  argu 
ment.  He  told  me  of  this,  and  described,  in  wrath, 
the  long,  lank  creature  from  Illinois,  wearing  a  dirty 
linen  duster  for  a  coat,  on  the  back  of  which  the  per 
spiration  had  splotched  two  wide  stains  that,  ema 
nating  from  each  arm-pit,  met  at  the  centre,  and  re 
sembled  a  dirty  map  of  a  continent. 

"I  said,"  snorted  Stanton,  "that  if  that  giraffe 
appeared  in  the  case  I  would  throw  up  my  brief  and 
leave." 

Lincoln  was  ruled  out,  and  the  worst  part  of  the 
transaction  was  that  he  knew  of  the  insult.  Nothing 
has  so  impressed  the  belief  I  hold  in  the  greatest  of 
all  Presidents  as  this  utter  ignoring  of  a  brutal 
affront.  It  was  no  assumption  of  Christian  forgive 
ness.  Lincoln  could  hate  with  an  intensity  known 
only  to  strong  natures,  and  when  just  retribution 
demanded  it  he  could  punish  with  an  iron  will  no 
appeals  for  pity  could  move.  But  he  possessed  that 
strange  sense  of  power  that  lifted  him  above  personal 
insult.  In  a  word,  he  could  not  be  insulted.  In  his 
quiet  dignity  he  put  shame  on  the  aggressor.  He 


Edwin  M.  Sianton.  57 

illustrated  this  in  his  own  humorous  way,  when  told 
by  a  friend  that  Horace  Greeley  was  abusing-  him  in ' 
a  most  outrageous  manner. 

"That  reminds  me,"  he  said,  "  of  the  big  fellow 
whose  little  wife  was  wont  to  beat  him  over  the  head 
without  resistance.  When  remonstrated  with,  the 
man  said,  '  Let  her  alone.  It  don't  hurt  me,  and  it 
does  her  a  power  of  good.' ' 

I  do  not  wonder  at  President  Lincoln  selecting 
Stanton  to  control,  at  the  time,  the  most  important 
arm  of  the  Government,  but  I  was  amazed  at  Stan- 
ton's  acceptance. 

He  was  wont  to  pass  some  time,  almost  daily,  at 
our  room  in  the  hotel,  where,  in  the  society  of  my 
dear  wife,  he  seemed  to  relax  from  the  sombre  re 
serve  of  busy  life.  It  was  a  relaxation  quite  removed 
from  the  kindty,  impulsive  nature  of  early  youth. 
There  was  the  same  sense  of  humor,  but  it  was  cyn 
ical,  and  stung,  as  well  as  amused.  Some  days 
before  he  entered  upon  his  new  duties,  I  asked  him, 
in  the  privacy  of  our  room,  if  the  strange  report  was 
true. 

"  Yes,"  he  responded,  "  I  am  going  to  be  Secretary 
of  War  to  Old  Abe." 

"  What  will  you  do  ?  "  I  asked,  meaning  as  to  how 
he  could  reconcile  his  contempt  for  the  President,  and 
their  widely  dissimilar  views,  with  his  service  under 
him.  His  reply  ignored  my  meaning. 

"Do?"  he  said;  "I  intend  to  accomplish  three 
things.  I  will  make  Abe  Lincoln  President  of  the 


58  Men  Wlio  Saved  the  Union. 

United  States.  I  will  force  this  man  McClellan  to 
iight  or  throw  up ;  and  last,  but  not  least,  I  will 
pick  Lorenzo  Thomas  up  with  a  pair  of  tongs  and 
drop  him  from  the  nearest  window." 

Strange  as  it  is,  this  last  and  apparently  easiest 
task  was  the  one  he  did  not  accomplish.  Lorenzo 
defied  him,  and,  as  Sumner  wrote  Stanton,  "stuck'' 
to  the  last. 

To  appreciate  the  change  wrought  in  the  appoint 
ment  of  Mr.  Stanton,  one  has  to  understand  the 
condition  of  the  Government  at  the  time  the  Hon. 
Simon  Cameron  was  retired.  The  war  that  so  un 
expectedly  broke  upon  us — so  unexpectedly  that  the 
Government  itself  could  not  believe  in  its  existence 
until  the  roar  of  Confederate  artillery  rung  in  its 
ears,  found  a  people  at  the  North  not  only  unpre 
pared,  but  in  profound  ignorance  of  all  that  was 
necessary  to  carry  on  an  armed  conflict.  All  the 
wars  that  went  to  make  up  our  history,  as  wars  are 
wont  to  do,  had  been  fought  out  in  skirmishes  that 
left  the  Government  and  the  body  of  the  people  un 
enlightened  as  to  the  necessities  of  a  great  conflict, 
such  as  the  rest  of  the  world  is  taught  and  trained 
through  experience  to  understand. 

The  volunteers,  accepted  from  the  States,  elected 
their  officers,  and  were,  in  consequence,  constituents 
instead  of  privates,  and  these  officers  studied,  over 
night,  all  they  attempted  to  practise  the  next  day ; 
and  while  the  awkward  drill  went  on,  of  discipline, 
the  soul  and  body  of  an  army,  there  was  none. 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  59 

Two  facts  alone  saved  us :  one  was  the  strange 
adaptability  of  our  people  to  any  emergency,  and  the 
other,  that  our  enemy  \vas  in  as  bad  condition  as 
ourselves. 

The  first  roar  of  "rebel  "  artillery,  as  it  was  then 
called,  aroused  our  people  to  such  extent,  that  the 
roll  of  the  drum  heard  all  over  the  land  was  the  throb 
of  a  mighty  impulse  set  to  harsh  music,  and  we  de 
veloped  in  an  instant  all  the  good  and  bad  of  a  great 
people.  While  the  patriotic  hurried  in  thousands  to 
the  front  to  fight,  the  dishonest,  in  almost  like  num 
bers,  hastened  to  the  rear  to  plunder.  Looking  over 
the  field,  from  the  War  Department  under  Cameron, 
at  Washington,  it  was  difficult  to  determine  which 
had  control,  and  the  direst  confusion  reigned  through 
both. 

The  Hon.  Simon  Cameron,  Secretary  of  War, 
proved  incapable  of  controlling  the  one  or  organizing 
the  other.  In  the  field  \ve  had  confusion  utterly  con 
founded,  followed  by  shameful  disasters,  while,  on 
all  sides,  organized  dishonesty  plundered  at  will. 
Congress  saw  from  the  portals  of  the  Capitol  the  in 
solent  wave  of  the  Confederate  flag,  while  along  the 
heavy  walls  echoed  the  roar  of  an  artillery  as  insolent. 
In  our  despair  we  called  McClellan  from  a  little 
victory,  won  by  Rosecrans  in  West  Virginia,  and 
labelling  him  "the  young  Napoleon, "  gave  him  su 
preme  command.  Popular  acclamation  made  this 
youth,  who  had  all  the  confidence  of  genius  without 
its  capacity  or  inspiration,  President,  in  fact.  Abra- 


GO  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

ham  Lincoln,  ignorant  of  all  that  pertained  to  the 
art  of  war,  magnified  its  importance  and  difficulties, 
as  one  under  such  circumstances  will,  and  with  the 
modesty  so  marked  in  him  deferred  patiently  to  those 
he  believed  better  informed. 

When  Mr.  Stanton  told  us  that  he  would  make 
Abraham  Lincoln  President,  he  did  not  mean  that 
he  would  restore  the  Union,  but  that  he  would  rele 
gate  the  young  Napoleon  to  his  subordinate  position, 
that  of  being  commander.  The  indifference,  not  to 
say  arrogance,  of  our  untried  Napoleon,  is  hard  to 
realize  now.  With  princes  and  the  sons  of  mill 
ionaires  upon  his  staff,  he  assumed  the  airs  of  a 
dictator,  and  it  was  no  uncommon  circumstance  to 
see  both  President  and  Secretary  of  War  waiting  in 
his  ante-chamber,  for  leisure  from  mighty  reviews 
and  petty  detail,  for  an  interview  with,  the  man  who 
had  no  campaign  to  communicate,  or,  if  he  had, 
declined  taking  the  Government  into  his  confidence. 

Congress,  in  its  despair,  set  up  this  untried  dignity 
in  gorgeous  uniform,  and  saw,  for  nearly  a  year,  a 
huge  army  coiled  like  a  sluggish  anaconda  about  the 
capital,  and  learned  to  its  dismay  that  the  only  orders 
from  headquarters  were  to  "  avoid  bringing  on  a 
conflict,"  and  continued  congratulations  that  "all 
was  quiet  on  the  Potomac."  Exasperated  beyond 
endurance,  Congress  demanded  the  removal  of  Simon 
Cameron  as  a  preliminary  step  to  unhorsing  our 
parade  captain. 

President  Lincoln,  nothing  loath,  complied  with 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  Gl 

this,  and,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  hesitated,  for  some 
days,  between  the  appointment  of  the  Hon.  Joseph 
Holt  and  Edwin  M.  Stanton.  Strange  to  say,  the 
doubt  was  solved  by  the  interference  of  General 
McClellan.  He  preferred  the  man  who,  in  the  end, 
made  life  a  burden  to  the  young  Napoleon,  and  his 
retirement  a  necessity. 

"  Now,  gentlemen,"  said  Secretary  Stanton  to  the 
officers  assembled  at  his  first  reception,  "  we  will,  if 
you  please,  have  some  fighting.  It  is  my  business 
to  furnish  the  means,  it  is  yours  to  use  them.  I 
leave  the  fighting  to  you,  but  the  fighting  we  must 
have." 

The  change  wrought  by  him,  in  his  new  capacity, 
was  magical.  Disorder  and  dishonesty  disappeared 
together.  The  one  hid  itself  in  holes,  to  be  hunted 
out  and  punished  with  a  certainty  that  struck  terror 
into  the  souls  of  the  thieves ;  while  the  other  was 
driven  out  never  to  appear  again.  Huge  armies 
began  to  move,  the  great  arteries  of  supply  to  throb 
with  men  and  material.  The  anaconda  uncoiled  its 
folds,  and  stretching  out,  drove  the  Confederate  flag 
and  artillery  from  Munson's  Hill.  The  roar  of 
deadly  conflict  grew  remote,  and  Richmond,  in  lieu 
of  Washington,  was  threatened  with  capture.  The 
stillness  about  the  War  Department  grew  ominous. 
Instead  of  quarrelling  contractors  and  clattering 
epauletted  officials,  the  telegraph  ticked  out  its  fate 
ful  information,  deadly  orders,  reports  of  great 
battles,  and,  I  am  pained  to  write,  shameful  dis- 


G2  3/e?i  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

asters  which  startled  the  land.  The  people  felt  the 
master  hand,  and  waited  in  breathless  anxiety  for  the 
results,  in  victory  or  defeat.  Men  about  the  capital 
saw  through  the  dead  hours  of  the  night  the  lights 
gleam  from  the  windows  where  the  masterful  Secre 
tary  held,  without  rest,  the  trembling  fate  of  the  great 
Republic  in  firm  hands  under  an  iron  will. 

Few  only  of  us  knew  of  the  strain  put  upon  one 
man  in  this  hour  of  deadly  trial.  Edwin  M.  Stanton 
had  been,  of  late  years,  subject  to  a  determination  of 
blood  to  the  brain,  and  had  been  warned  by  his 
capable  physician,  that,  unless  he  found  entire  quiet 
in  abstinence  from  all  excitement,  he  might  die  at 
any  moment.  Yet  notwithstanding  these  warnings, 
he  threw  himself  into  the  great  work,  fully  aware  of 
the  danger  before  him,  while  Death  sat  at  his  board, 
slept  in  his  bed,  and  through  the  long  watches 
of  those  fearful  nights  the  grim  phantom  glared 
upon  him,  ready  at  any  moment  to  strike.  It  was, 
after  all,  only  a  furlough  he  received  from  the  enemy. 
God  seemed  to  ordain  that  he  should  be  spared 
until  his  mighty  task  was  ended,  and  then  the  pale 
messenger  accompanied  him  home,  tenderly  to  in 
scribe  upon  his  monument — "  To  this  man,  more 
than  to  any  other,  save  one,  the  great  Republic  owes 
its  life." 

This  disorder,  added  to  his  mental  strain,  over 
whelmed  the  great  Secretary's  nervous  system,  and 
not  only  deepened  the  gloomy  spells  to  which  he  was 
addicted,  but  made  him  so  irritable  and  impatient 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  63 

that  official  business  with  subordinates  got  to  be 
insult.  He  was  approached  by  all  about  him  in  fear 
and  trembling.  And  the  same  ugliness  seemed  to 
be  contagious.  The  officer  coming  from  his  pres 
ence,  wounded  to  the  quick,  gave  to  others  under 
him  the  same  treatment. 

I  remember,  one  morning,  trying  to  gain  admit 
tance  to  the  Department  in  advance  of  the  hour  at 
which  the  place  was  open  to  the  world.  A  sentry 
arrested  my  entrance  at  the  door.  In  vain  I  pleaded 
an  engagement  with  the  Secretary,  and  asked  for  a 
corporal  or  sergeant  to  carry  in  my  card.  The 
stupid  fellow  gave  me  no  comfort.  While  parley 
ing  with  him,  Mr.  Seward  came  up,  and  the  guard 
dropped  his  musket  brusquely  across  the  way  of  the 
Secretary  of  State.  Before  our  great  diplomat 
could  make  himself  known,  I  said  : 

"  This  is  the  Secretary  of  State,  my  man,  and  you 
had  better  be  polite." 

The  guard  brought  his  musket  instantly  to  a  pre 
sent,  and  Mr.  Seward  passed  in. 

"  I  say,  Mr.  Secretary,"  I  cried  to  him,  "  as  I  got 
you  admitted,  common  politeness  dictates  that  you 
return  the  favor." 

"  Young  man,"  responded  the  Secretary,  looking 
over  his  shoulder,  "  the  politeness  of  this  Depart 
ment  is  not  common,"  and  passed  on. 

A  subordinate,  to  deal  comfortably  with  the  War 
Secretary,  had  to  be  a  mere  cipher,  so  dictatorial 
and  despotic  was  he.  I  remember,  wiien  summoned 


G4  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

before  him  as  Judge  Advocate  of  the  commission 
called  to  investigate  the  conduct  of  General  Don 
Carlos  Buell  in  Tennessee,  I  ventured  to  say  : 

"  This  is  all  very  well,  Mr.  Secretary,  but  I'd  like 
to  know  where  you  find  a  law  to  sanction  such  a  court 
as  this." 

"My  noble  captain,"  replied  the  Secretary,  his 
short  upper  lip  slightly  curling,  and  with  the  gleam 
of  his  white  teeth  and  dark  eyes  making  an  expres 
sion  anything  but  comfortable,  "you  are  commis 
sioned  to  obey  orders,  and  not  to  study  law,  for  it  is 
rather  late  in  life  for  you  to  begin  that.  When  I 
need  a  legal  adviser  it  is  not  likely  I  will  call  on 
Judge  Piatt.  If  I  am  to  be  met  here  with  the  quib 
ble  of  a  county-court  lawyer  I  will  find  some  other 
officer." 

The  sarcasm  stung,  for  I  had  been  placed  on  the 
bench  at  the  age  of  twenty-five,  as  Salmon  P.  Chase 
said,  that  I  might  have  an  opportunity  to  learn 
something  of  my  profession.  However,  I  hid  the 
hurt,  and  said : 

"  All  right ;  but  I  would  suggest  that  this  is  no 
ordinary  inquiry,  and  a  court  should  be  made  up  of 
the  ablest  officers." 

"That  is  true,"  responded  the  Secretary.  "You 
go  to  the  list  of  officers  not  on  duty,  and  I  will  ap 
point  from  that." 

I  did  as  directed,  and  the  next  day  sought  the  Sec 
retary  with  the  list  of  officers  in  my  hand.  I  met 
him  on  the  street  going  to  his  office,  that  had  been 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  G5 

removed  to  Winder's  Building-  to  enable  the  Govern 
ment  to  enlarge  the  old  structure.  I  turned  and 
walked  with  him,  telling  him  what  I  had  done.  He 
was  in  a  terrible  mood,  and  neither  looked  at  nor 
spoke  to  me.  At  the  door  of  his  office  the  messenger 
threw  it  open,  and  the  Secretary,  stalking  in,  banged 
it  into  my  face.  This  wooden  insult  sent  a  flush  to 
my  face.  Turning,  I  saw  General  Fremont,  who 
had  witnessed  the  affront,  and  while  talking  to  this 
remarkable  man,  the  messenger  came  from  the  Sec 
retary's  room  and,  after  looking  about  in  a  scared 
manner,  asked  me  if  I  was  "  Captain  Piety." 

"  All  but  the  piety,"  I  replied. 

"  Well,  I  guess  you're  the  man,"  he  said.  "The 
Secretary  wants  you." 

I  went  in.  Stanton  was  seated  alone  at  the  end  of 
his  table.  Looking  up,  he  exclaimed  : 

"  Donn,  what  in  the  -   -  do  you  want  ?  " 

"Nothing,  sir;  not  even  civil  treatment.  You 
directed  me  to  make  out  a  list  of  officers  to  compose 
the  Buell  court.  I  have  done  so,  and  only  came  to 
report  the  names." 

"Take  them  to  Halleck;  that  is  his  business," 
roared  the  Secretary.  "  I  can't  run  the  War  De 
partment,  let  alone  trying  to  run  Halleck.  Go  to 
him." 

"  Mr.  Secretary,"  I  said  quietly,  "  I  don't  mind 
being  jumped  on  by  you  any  more  than  if  it  were  my 
elder  brother,  but  I  won't  be  insulted  by  General 
Haileck,  as  you  know  I  will  be  if  I  go  as  you  direct." 


66  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

"  Insulted  ?  "  he  exclaimed,  angrily.  "  I'll  see  to 
that.  "  Here,  take  him  this,"  and  he  hastily  wrote 
a  note. 

I  did  as  ordered.  I  appeared  before  the  great  Art 
of  War,  whose  appearance  reminded  me  of  two  lines 
in  an  old  ballad  which  says  : 

"  His  head  being  larger  than  common 
O'erbalanced  the  rest  of  his  fat." 

He  read  the  note  I  handed  him,  then,  tearing  it  in 
two,  dropped  it  in  the  waste-basket,  saying,  with  all 
the  sarcasm  his  dull  face  was  capable  of : 

"  What  is  your  address,  captain  ?  " 

I  gave  it  to  him,  and  then,  rising  from  his  chair, 
he  bowed  mockingly,  and  added,  "  When  I  need  your 
assistance,  I  shall  certainly  send  for  you,  captain." 
The  sarcasm  of  this  was  so  well  done  that  it  raised 
the  dull,  epauletted  creature  in  my  estimation  far 
above  what  his  stupid  book  had  done.  I  retired  as 
gracefully  as  I  could,  and  reported  the  affair  to 
Stanton. 

"Damn  his  insolence!  Why  didn't  you  pull  his 
nose  ?  " 

"Because  the  insult  was  directed  at  you,"  I  an 
swered.  "I  was  only  the  poor  devil  of  a  captain 
assigned  to  the  duty  of  carrying  it.  I  wish  to  God 
I  was  out  of  this." 

My  perplexity  amused  the  Secretary.  He  burst 
into  a  laugh,  and  said,  "  Oh,  never  mind  Halleck; 
he  can't  insult  any  one.  Take  the  court  he  gives 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  67 

you,  and  do  the  best  you  can,"  and,  seeing-  that  I 
was  deeply  hurt,  he  put  his  arm  about  my  shoulders, 
in  his  old  caressing-  way,  and  added,  "  Don't  mind  me, 
we  are  both  hasty.  This  is  important  business  I 
give  you,  and  I  know  I  can  trust  you." 

I  did  my  best,  and,  while  on  the  subject,  may  as 
well  give  the  end.  The  records  of  that  tedious  court, 
so-called,  were  voluminous.  I  conveyed  them,  as 
duly  bound,  to  the  War  Department.  Mr.  Stanton 
examined  me  at  length  as  to  what  had  been  proven, 
and  I  saw  an  expression  very  like  heat  lightning  flash 
over  his  face  when  I  told  him  that  a  certain  pet  of 
his  had  suffered  severely.  After  the  death  of  the 
Secretary  it  was  discovered  that  the  entire  record 
had  disappeared. 

I  have  my  own  opinion  as  to  the  cause  of  that  dis 
appearance,  but  it  is  only  an  opinion,  and  I  do  not 
care  to  state  it.  Fortunately  or  unfortunately,  the 
accomplished  stenographer  employed  by  the  commis 
sion,  Benn  Pittman,  had  yet  the  original  short-hand 
notes,  and  restored  the  awful  volume  of  unmitigated 
rot. 

History  grows  more  difficult  as  the  world  goes  on. 
The  art  of  printing,  that  is  regarded  as  an  aid,  is  its 
chief  hindrance  ;  for  history  is  putting  to  record  pop 
ular  belief.  The  daily  journals  photograph,  through 
their  instantaneous  process,  these  beliefs  as  facts; 
and,  while  this  process  seems  to  throw  a  piercing 
glare  on  all  events,  it  only  confuses  the  mind  of  the 
impartial  investigator.  It  is  an  electric  light  that 


68  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

deepens  the  shadows  while  it  distorts  all  that  it 
shines  upon.  The  old  style  of  genius  patiently  delv 
ing-  among-  time-stained  documents  and  half-forgotten 
facts,  in  search  of  the  truth,  was  more  satisfactory  ; 
for  it  made  events,  if  not  clear,  at  least  consistent, 
and,  while  monsters  of  goodness  and  wickedness  were 
created,  the  mass  of  facts,  as  recorded,  harmonized 
with  each  other.  We  may  not  have  got  a  true  story, 
but  we  did  receive  a  lesson  that  refined  and  elevated 
its  pupils. 

•  Through  this  process,  the  conduct  and  character  of 
our  great  War  Secretary  suffer  unjustly.  The  late 
Senator  Wilson,  of  Massachusetts,  and  the  late  Jere 
miah  S.  Black,  of  Pennsylvania,  had  a  fierce  contro 
versy  over  Stanton's  conduct  while  a  member  of 
President  Buchanan's  Cabinet.  The  one  maintained 
that  if  the  other  was  correct  in  what  he  asserted, 
Stanton  was  a  monster  of  duplicity  and  ingratitude. 
Both  were  wrong,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  both 
were  right.  Senator  Wilson  wras  a  man  all  senti 
ment  and  of  little  information,  while  Judge  Black 
squared  all  creation  on  certain  principles,  and  was 
as  narrow  in  his  bigotry  as  Wilson  in  his  beliefs. 
Both  failed  to  take  into  account  the  impulsiveness  of 
the  Secretary,  whose  feelings  often  ran  away  with  his 
better  judgment.  He  wras  bound,  by  his  position  in 
Buchanan's  Cabinet,  to  sustain  his  chief  in  his  charm 
ing  proposition  which  asserted  that,  while  a  State 
could  not  secede  from  the  Union,  the  Government 
could  not  restrain  such  secession  by  force.  Stanton 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  G9 

saw  the  absurdity  of  an  attempt  to  hold  the  turbulent 
Union  by  the  rotten  ground-rail  of  a  Virginia  ab 
straction,  but  he  looked  in  wrath  that  ended  in  sick 
ening-  disgust  at  the  noisy  Abolitionists,  who,  through 
their  hatred  of  the  master,  would  scuttle  and  sink  the 
ship  of  state.  Between  these  conflicting  feelings  he 
gave  open  expression  to  his  impatience,  that  Wilson 
seized  on  as  information,  and,  after  Stanton's  death, 
claimed  as  evidence  of  sympathy. 

The  truth  is  the  charge  against  Stanton  of  betray 
ing  the  secrets  of  Buchanan's  Cabinet  made  by  impli 
cation  in  the  Black- Wilson  controversy,  and  since 
brought  forward  directly  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  is, 
in  the  light  of  facts  since  unveiled,  not  only  untena 
ble,  but  grotesquely  absurd.  In  the  first  place  the 
Cabinet  had  no  secrets  to  divulg-e,  and  in  the  second 
place,  if  such  existed  their  betrayal  could  have  been 
made  only  to  the  Confederates.  We  may  wade 
through  the  solemn  discussions  of  that  helplessly 
dignified  body  to  find  only  propositions  looking  to 
avoiding  the  embarrassments  of  the  situation.  All 
that  was  said  and  done  could  have  been,  and,  indeed, 
was  published  to  the  world.  But  we  must  remember 
that  in  the  issue  then  pressing  an  imbecile  adminis 
tration  for  an  immediate  solution  the  Confederates 
were  the  foes,  and  the  Republican  party  the  ally  of 
the  Government.  Secretary  Stanton's  offence  was 
that  he  conferred  with  friends  and  allies.  How  to 
save  the  Union  was  the  problem,  and  Stanton  sought 
counsel  with  the  incoming  administration  that  was 


TO  Men  Wlio  Saved  the  Union. 

more  deepl}'  interested  in  the  grave  question  than  the 
one  about  to  expire.  But,  cries  the  enemy,  he  did 
this  secretly.  Of  course  he  did.  To  understand 
this  to  the  credit  of  the  Secretary,  we  have  to  re 
member  that  party  spirit  was  more  violent  and  un 
reasoning-  then  than  at  any  time  in  the  history  of 
the  Republic. 

The  political  structure  formed  by  the  fathers  was 
intended  in  two  of  its  branches,  the  judicial  and 
executive,  to  be  colorless  so  far  as  politics  are  con 
cerned.  The  Constitution  so  carefully  framed  was 
meant  to  be  a  protection  to  the  minority.  But  this 
Government  on  paper  developed  in  practice  into  a 
rule  of  party  in  which  the  minority  is  possessed  of 
no  right  that  the  majority  is  bound  to  respect.  The 
party  in  power  has  come  to  be  not  only  a  despot 
ism  of  numbers  but  the  Government  itself,  and  all 
opposition  to  it  assumes  the  rank  flavor  of  treason. 
It  is  difficult  at  this  day  to  realize  the  intolerant 
and  bigoted  feeling  and  conduct  of  the  Democracy 
in  power  at  the  time  the  South  seceded  and  Presi 
dent  Buchanan  was  called  on  to  vacate  his  position 
in  favor  of  a  minority  President,  a  vulgar  rail-splitter 
from  the  wilds  of  Illinois.  Up  to  that  time  the  mere 
expression  of  opinion  in  favor  of  free-soil  was  met  by 
violence  that  threatened  death.  Members  of  Con 
gress  went  to  their  seats  armed  with  revolvers,  and 
the  Democratic  side  courted  attack.  Sumner  had 
been  stricken  down  in  his  place  in  the  Senate,  and 
a  reign  of  terror  had  been  inaugurated  such  as 


Edwin  J/.  Stanton.  71 

had  been  before  unknown  in  the  history  of  our 
country.  Mr.  Stanton  had  sense  enough  to  know 
that  all  this  violence  only  hastened  on  what  it  had 
been  created  to  prevent,  and  he  had  sufficient  pru 
dence  not  to  peril  his  own  influence  by  defying-  it. 
While  his  life-long-  Democracy  revolted  against  the 
doctrines  of  the  incoming  party,  he  recognized  the 
fact  that  it  was  incoming,  and,  appreciating  the 
eminent  men  who  were  put  to  the  front,  he  sought 
to  counsel  with  them.  He  could  not  betray  the 
administration  of  which  he  made  a  part,  for  it  pos 
sessed,  as  I  have  said,  nothing  the  imparting  a 
knowledge  of  which  would  constitute  a  betrayal. 
His  sin,  in  the  eyes  of  his  associate,  Jeremiah  S. 
Black,  at  that  date,  and  since  in  those  of  the  Hon. 
Joseph  Wheeler,  was  that  he  had  any  intercourse 
with  Abolitionists.  He  took  them  into  the  confi 
dence  of  the  outgoing  administration  when  both 
parties  were  supposed  to  be  acting,  if  not  together, 
at  least  in  opposition  to  the  common  enemy.  As 
I  have  said,  we  must  remember  that  this  occurred 
at  a  time  when  party  spirit  was  resolving  itself  into 
an  armed  conflict,  and  that  while  President  Bu 
chanan  deplored  secession  he  despised  its  Republican 
opponents,  and  those  who  see  so  much  to  condemn  in 
Mr.  Stan  ton's  secret  conference,  find  no  blame  for  a 
President  who  not  only  failed  to  secure  his  successor 
safe  entry  to  the  Capital,  but  openly  expressed  his 
contempt  by  permitting  the  President-elect  to  go 
from  a  hotel  unaccompanied  to  the  Capitol,  to  take 


72  Men  Wlio  Saved  the  Union. 

the  oath  of  office.      The  poor  old  politician  little 
dreamed  that  he  then  lost  an  opportunity  of  shedding 
a  grace  on  himself  by  introducing  to  the  people  the 
man  so  good  and  so  great  that  even  this  formal 
official  recognition  would  have,  in  a  measure,  re 
flected  a  better  light  on  the  dying  administration, 
That  had  the  sense  to  see  the  coming  wrong 
But  not  the  heart  to  fight. 

This  is  all  there  is  left  of  the  shadow  that  bitter 
but  feeble  enemies  seek  to  cast  upon  the  tomb  of  the 
great  War  Secretary. 

I  cannot  believe  that  a  man  of  Stanton's  force  of 
character  and  fixed  opinions  was  suddenly  converted 
from  a  pro-slavery  Democrat  to  an  Abolitionist.  He 
was  not  the  man  to  be  stricken  down  in  his  sin,  and 
rise  in  his  righteousness,  from  one  blow.  It  is  my 
opinion  that  he  took  the  place  tendered  him  by  Pres 
ident  Lincoln  precisely  as  he  would  have  accepted  a 
retainer  from  a  client  in  an  important  case.  He  saw 
from  the  beginning  that  the  issue  was  to  be  fought 
out  to  the  bitter  end.  He  found  no  difficulty  in  mak 
ing  the  case  his  own.  It  was  his  habit ;  and,  in  this 
instance,  it  came  easy ;  for,  while  he  loathed  the  anti- 
slavery  organization,  he  loved  the  Union  with  the 
strongest  pulsations  of  a  heart  that  had  in  it  truer 
guidance  than  the  loftiest  leader  of  the  Abolitionists 
had  in  the  light  of  his  brain. 

In  the  same  way,  General  McClellan  hurries  into 
print  to  charge  Edwin  M.  Stanton  with  treachery  to 
the  man  who  claims  to  have  made  the  Secretary. 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  73 

Tliis  is  natural,  and  of  easy  solution.  When  the 
"Young1  Napoleon"  graciously  consented  to  the 
selection  of  Stanton  as  Secretary  of  War,  he  did  so 
under  the  impression  that  he  was  to  have  the  same 
sort  of  humble  supporter  Simon  Cameron  had  been. 
He  awakened  to  the  fact  that  it  was  one  thing-  to 
have  a  sympathizing-  friend  in  a  brother  Democrat, 
giving  him  what  lawyers  call  street  opinions  on  sup- 
posable  cases,  and  quite  another  to  have  the  same 
man  made  master,  with  the  responsibility  of  an 
empire  thrown  upon  his  shoulders. 

Stanton  assumed  the  powers  of  Secretary  with  the 
solemn  resolve  to  execute  its  duties  to  the  best  of  his 
ability,  without  fear,  affection  or  favor.  He  failed  in 
many  instances,  as  I  shall  show,  but  not  in  respect 
to  McClellan.  His  first  important  move  grew  out  of 
the  very  intimacy  that  is  made  the  foundation  of  this 
charge.  Stanton  saw,  as  did  Lincoln,  Seward,  and 
Chase,  that  only  half  the  enemy  was  under  arms  at 
their  front ;  that  the  other  half,  far  more  deadly,  was 
coiled  in  silence  at  their  rear. 

Lincoln  was  a  minority  President.  The  unknown 
rail-splitter  of  Illinois  had  no  hold  on  the  affections 
of  the  people  he  presided  over.  He  told  us  once  that 
he  felt  like  a  surveyor  in  the  wild  woods  of  the  West, 
who,  while  looking  for  a  corner,  kept  an  eye  over  his 
shoulder  for  an  Indian.  The  late  Whigs  and  imme 
diate  Free-soilers  voting  against  the  extension  of 
slaver^7,  more  from  the  necessity  of  having  some  sort 
of  a  platform  on  which  to  rally  than  opposition  to 


74  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

slavery,  accepted  without  enthusiasm  the  President 
a  minority  had  elected ;  while  the  Democrats  at  the 
North  felt,  as  deeply  as  Stanton  himself,  nothing-  but 
natred  and  contempt  for  the  cause. 

The  firing-  on  our  flag*  at  Sumter,  that  so  aroused 
the  war  spirit  at  the  North,  disconcerted  and  dis 
couraged  the  democratic  sentiment  at  the  same 
North,  but  did  not  kill  it.  It  was  observed,  and  it 
must  be  remembered,  that,  as  the  thousands  wheeled 
into  line  and  marched  to  the  front,  it  was  under  cries 
of  "Save  the  Union,"  and  not  to  free  the  negro. 
They  went  out  to  punish  and  put  down  the  miscre 
ants  who  had  dragged  in  the  dust  the  flag  of  our 
fathers,  and  they  gave  the  Abolitionists  the  cold 
shoulder  for  being,  as  they  believed,  the  real  cause 
of  all  this  turmoil.  How  long  this  war  spirit  would 
last  was  the  question.  Lincoln  believed  it  would 
continue  with  our  success  in  the  field.  He  and  his 
Cabinet  suddenly  awakened  to  quite  another  fact,  and 
that  was  that,  while  a  victory  seemed  to  arouse  the 
rebel  spirit  at  the  North,  and  a  demand  wras  heard 
to  cease  fighting  and  negotiate  with  the  wrong-doers 
for  peace,  a  shameful  defeat,  that  sent  mourning- 
through  the  households  of  the  patriotic,  seemed  to 
arouse  a  spirit  that  not  only  silenced  open  discontent, 
but  sent  thousands  on  thousands  of  brave  fellows  to 
the  field  to  retrieve  the  disaster. 

It  was  impossible  to  tell  how  long*  this  state  of 
affairs  would  continue.  Our  great  statesmen  in 
control  at  Washington  well  knew  that  this  rebellious 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  75 

discontent  grew  on  delay.  Hence  Stanton's  demand, 
"  We  will  have  some  fighting,  gentlemen." 

He  awakened  to  another  startling  fact,  and  that 
was  that  this  spirit  of  distrust  in  the  Government 
had  crept  into  the  army.  West  Point,  that  teaches 
everything  but  patriotism  and  the  art  of  war,  had 
been  prolific  of  pro-slavery  Democrats.  Taught  blind 
obedience  to  the  powers  that  be  as  the  essence  of 
soldiership,  and  having  known  no  other  power  than 
a  pro-slavery  Government,  the  West  Pointers  divided 
at  the  sound  of  the  first  gun,  and  while  one-half,  ac 
knowledging  allegiance  only  to  their  States,  went 
South,  the  other  half,  recognizing  their  obligations 
to  the  National  Government,  remained  faithful,  and 
yet,  with  few  exceptions,  secretly  despising  the  rule 
of  Abolitionists.  This  feeling  arose  from  the  addi 
tional  fact  that  West  Point  is  more  of  a  social  feature 
than  a  military  school,  and  as  reformers  are  not 
fashionable,  seldom,  if  ever,  even  respectable,  the 
cadet  had  a  horror  of  the  howling  Abolitionist. 

These  are  unpleasant  things  to  say  now,  but  I  am 
giving  Stanton's  views  at  the  time,  and  the  views 
shared  by  his  eminent  associates.  We  look  back, 
and  wonder  at  the  cold  neglect  awarded  George  H. 
Thomas,  the  most  brilliant  and  successful  soldier  of 
the  war,  but  Lincoln  had  been  taught  to  distrust  a 
West  Point  Democrat,  and  that  distrust  was  deep 
ened  ~by  Thomas'  Virginia  birth. 

"  This  man  has  no  heart  in  the  cause,"  said  Stan- 
ton  of  McClellan,  "  he  is  fighting  for  a  boundary  if 


76  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

he  fights  at  all ;  our  great  difficulty  is  to  make  him 
fight  at  all." 

I  have  not  the  space  here  to  follow  the  "  Young- 
Napoleon  ' '  through  his  fearful  disasters  on  the 
James.  Stan  ton  maintained  to  the  last  hour  of  his 
life  that  these  defeats  came  as  much  from  disloyalty 
as  incapacity.  I  differ  from  him.  The  same  lack  of 
capacity  that  brought  defeat  saved  us  from  any 
well-defined  project  of  treachery.  The  man  who 
shrank  from  a  move  on  Richmond,  after  Malvern 
Hill,  had  not  in  him  the  stuff  to  make  a  Catiline. 

I  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  war,  save  so  far  as 
the  facts  go  to  disprove  the  charges  now  made  against 
the  dead  Secretary.  Stanton  told  me  after  he  left  the 
War  Department  to  die,  that  "  all  the  time  the  huge 
army  lay  coiled  about  Washington,  a  distrust  of  the 
Government,  as  a  nest  of  vicious  Abolitionists,  was 
insidiously  cultivated  among  the  men ;  and,  after 
the  terrible  defeats  before  Richmond,  when  distress 
from  sickness  and  disaster  depressed  the  army,  the 
men  were  taught  to  believe  that  the  Government 
had  abandoned  them  to  their  cruel  fate.  This  was 
so  marked,"  continued  the  Secretary,  speaking  in 
gasps,  "  that  when  Lincoln  visited  the  camps  a  fear 
was  felt  at  headquarters  that  he  would  be  insulted, 
and  orders  were  issued  to  cheer  the  President  when 
he  appeared."  Instead  of  holding  to  all  that  we  had 
gained  through  such  terrible  loss  of  blood  and 
money,  the  entire  army  had  to  be  returned  to  the 
fortifications  of  Washington,  before  Lincoln  dared 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  77 

put  another  general  in  command.  McClellan's 
restoration  was  a  mistake,  but  it  originated  in  the 
same  fact.  Lincoln  said:  "This  man  may  not  be 
the  best  to  continue  as  our  general,  but  he  has  the 
confidence  of  the  men,  and  is  the  only  one  able  to 
reorganize  our  forced  after  these  defeats.  We  must 
bear  with  him  awhile  longer." 

I  have  not  space  to  treat  of  this  McClellan  affair 
further  than  is  necessary  to  illustrate  the  character 
of  Secretary  Stanton.  If  the  democratic  general 
had  his  plan  of  a  campaign,  he  was  as  remarkable  for 
keeping  it  to  himself  as  he  was  cautious  in  putting  it 
in  operation.  Nothing  but  repeated  orders  could 
force  him  to  move,  and  the  only  interference  he  could 
complain  of  was  in  the  directing  that  Washington 
should  not  be  uncovered. 

The  true  story  of  the  late  war  has  not  been  told. 
It  probably  never  will  be  told.  It  is  not  flattering 
to  our  people,  and,  as  I  have  said,  unpalatable  truths 
seldom  find  their  way  into  history.  All  books,  so 
far,  are  confined  to  the  armed  conflict,  which  was 
but  one-third  of  the  war  the  administration  was 
called  on  to  prosecute.  I  have  referred  to  the  dis 
loyal  feeling  that  fairly  honeycombed  with  treason 
the  Northern  States.  There  was  another  third  of 
the  conflict,  that  concerned  the  power  at  Washing 
ton,  that  the  able  Seward,  under  Lincoln,  managed 
with  eminent  ability,  and  that  was  the  danger  from 
foreign  interference.  Had  the  war  powers  of  Europe 
combined,  as  they  were  disposed  to  do,  in  a  recogni- 


78  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

tion  of  the  Confederacy,  I  should  now  be  writing 
this  under  the  Northern  Republic  of  America.  This 
fear  was  never  made  prominent,  for  it  was  not  policy 
to  have  it  known  ;  but  it  hung  on  the  horizon  like  a 
heavy  cloud,  with  muttering  thunder,  that  Lincoln 
and  his  Cabinet  were  forced  to  see  and  hear. 

Now,  our  capital  was  in  the  country  of  the  enemy. 
Sandwiched  between  Virginia  and  Maryland,  with 
treason  simmering  in  the  one  and  at  a  boil  in  the 
other,  it  was  in  continual  peril.  To  lose  that  capital 
at  any  time  was  to  fetch  on  from  Europe,  not  only 
recognition,  but  armed  interference.  The  clear,  capa 
ble  brain  of  Seward  saw  this,  and  hence  the  order 
from  the  Secretary  of  War  that  kept  an  army  well  in 
hand,  not  so  much  to  repel  the  attacks  of  an  organ 
ized  force,  as  to  keep  in  subjection  a  people  whose 
stones  and  clubs  would  have  been  as  much  to  the 
purpose  as  Lee's  armed  brigades  of  disciplined  men. 

I  am  pained  to  write,  striving  to  do  so  with  truth, 
that  against  other  charges  of  injustice  on  the  part 
of  the  great  Secretary  I  can  make  no  defence.  With 
all  his  eminent  ability,  with  all  his  earnest,  honest 
desire  to  do  his  duty  to  the  Government  he  served, 
he  was,  without  exception,  more  subject  to  personal 
likes  and  dislikes,  more  vindictive  in  his  gratification 
of  the  last,  than  any  man  ever  called  to  public  sta 
tion.  Nothing  but  his  wonderful  ability  and  great 
force  of  character  saved  him  and  his  cause  from 
utter  wreck  in  this  direction.  Not  only  so,  but  it 
seemed  to  me  that  both  Stanton  and  Seward  were 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  79 

drunk  with  the  lust  of  power.  They  fairly  rioted  in 
its  enjoyment.  While  Lincoln  and  Chase  were  as 
pure  and  simple  in  this  as  children,  with  no  such 
morbid  desire  to  gr&tify,  with  no  personal  friends  to 
favor,  and  no  enemies  to  punish,  Stanton  and  Seward 
not  only  revelled  in  despotic  authority,  but  Stanton 
used  the  fearful  power  of  the  Government  to  crush 
those  he  hated,  while  he  sought,  through  the  same 
means,  to  elevate  those  he  loved.  His  official  busi 
ness  became  a  personal  affair,  and  the  enemies  he 
sought  to  destroy  were,  with  some  exceptions,  in  his 
estimation  the  foes  of  the  Government. 

Of  the  many  instances  memory  brings  to  mind, 
the  most  cruel — one  may  indeed  write  infamous — was 
the  treatment  of  General  Rosecrans.  William  S. 
Rosecrans,  a  brave,  patriotic  soldier,  with  brilliant 
qualities  as  a  commander,  and  many  striking  defects, 
had  wounded  Stanton  in  a  way  never  to  be  forgotten 
or  forgiven. 

"Old  Rosy,"  as  his  soldiers  affectionately  called 
him,  and,  in  so  doing,  gave  the  man  in  two  words, 
did  not  know  one  man  from  another.  In  regard  to 
character  he  was  color-blind,  and,  of  course,  did  not 
recognize  a  great  man  when  he  saw  him — certainly 
not,  unless  under  epaulettes  manufactured  at  West 
Point.  He  regarded  Stanton  as  a  clerk  to  the  Presi 
dent,  and  the  President  as  an  impertinent  interfe 
rence  in  the  management  of  the  great  war,  which 
interference  he  regretted  that  the  Constitution  pre 
vented  removing. 


80  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

I  have  said  lie  had  brilliant  qualities  as  a  general 
in  command.  He  could  plan  a  campaign  and  fight 
a  battle  equal  to  any  officer  in  the  United  States. 
But  in  the  selection  of  his  subordinates  he  could  not 
distinguish  George  H.  Thomas  from  Alexander  Mc- 
Dowel  McCook,  and  in  receiving  instructions  or  ad 
vice  from  his  superiors,  he  could  not  see  that  they 
were  apt  to  be  wiser  than  he,  from  their  having 
escaped  what  he  was  pleased  to  call  a  military 
education.  In  the  personal  intercourse  first  had 
between  the  Secretary  and  the  soldier  occurred  a 
mutual  misunderstanding  of  each  other  that  con 
tinued  to  the  end.  Nature  has  given  to  all  its  creat 
ures  an  instinctive  knowledge  of  their  enemies. 
This  enmity  really  had  its  origin  in  ignorance,  but  it 
is  doubtful  whether  any  amount  of  information 
would  have  corrected  the  difference.  Rosecrans  saw 
before  him,  as  I  have  said,  a  mere  clerk,  and  instead 
of  sweeping  the  floor  with  his  new  plumes,  with 
bated  breath  and  humble  attention,  as  other  generals 
were  wont  to  do,  he  not  only  held  his  perpendicular 
with  the  martial  bearing  becoming  the  sashed  and 
gold-embroidered  soldier,  but  with  a  soldier's  indif 
ference  to  the  views  of  a  clerk  and  civilian  on  mat 
ters  of  war.  Of  course,  the  Secretary  resented  such 
extraordinary  conduct,  and  could  see  no  good  in  the 
shallow  brigadier. 

A  vacancy  of  a  major-generalship  in  the  regular 
service  occurring,  some  time  after  Stanton  assumed 
the  duties  of  Secretary,  he  issued  a  circular  to  all 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  81 

the  generals  open  to  such  promotion,  offering-  the 
position  to  the  one  achieving  the  first  victory. 

The  Secretary  did  not  entertain  the  highest  opinion 
of  his  epauletted  subordinates,  and  did  not  know  that 
he  was  wounding  men  who,  whatever  may  be  said 
of  their  military  capacity  or  patriotism,  had,  through 
training  and  association,  a  nice  sense  of  honor.  All 
of  these  felt  what  Rosecrans  alone  had  boldness 
enough  to  resent.  Seizing  his  pen,  always  as  fatal 
to  himself  as  his  sword  to  the  enemy,  he  worded  a 
rough  rebuke  that  went  home  to  the  heart  of  the 
author  of  the  circular.  After  that  this  brave  man 
and  efficient  officer  had,  first,  neglect,  and  then 
cruel  punishment  and  abuse  from  the  Secretary. 

When  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  required  a 
new  commander,  after  the  failure  of  General  Buell, 
Chase  urged  Rosecrans,  and  Lincoln  called  him  to 
the  place,  in  spite  of  Stanton's  opposition.  The  Sec 
retary  of  War  preferred  Thomas,  not  only  because  he 
had  learned  to  admire  and  believe  in  that  greatest  of 
all  our  generals,  but  for  that  he  had  sworn  "  Rosy  " 
should  never  again  be  officer  of  his.  I  speak  of  what 
I  know,  for  I  had  excited  Stanton's  wrath  by  urging 
the  selection  of  Rosecrans,  and  I  remember  well  the 
day  when  he  entered  the  War  Department,  flushed 
with  anger,  for  I  happened  there,  and  said  abruptly 
to  me,  "  Well,  you  have  your  choice  of  idiots  ;  now 
look  out  for  frightful  disasters." 

No  army  in  the  field  called  for  the  same  patient 
consideration  and  care  as  that  of  the  Cumberland. 


82  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

The  success  of  our  campaigning  turned  on  a  question 
of  transportation.  The  enemy,  occupying  the  inner 
lines  of  a  circle,  could,  with  comparative  ease,  con 
centrate  on  any  point  selected,  while  to  the  geograph 
ical  difficulties  before  us  were  added  the  dishonesty 
of  our  agents  furnishing  supplies  and  the  wanton 
improvidence  of  our  men,  who,  feeling  the  huge  Gov 
ernment  at  their  backs,  were,  with  all  their  courage 
and  endurance,  as  improvident  as  children.  We 
wasted  in  a  day  what  would  have  sustained  a  Euro 
pean  army  for  a  month. 

We  had  three  armies  in  the  field,  and  if  my  reader 
will  turn  to  the  map  he  will  see  that,  while  one 
operated  on  the  James,  the  other  had  the  Mississippi. 
The  third,  Rosecrans'  force,  struck  through  the 
interior  from  Louisville,  and  for  six  hundred  miles 
over  the  enemy's  territory  had  to  depend  on  a  single 
line  of  railroad.  Rosecrans  had  more  trouble  to 
keep  open  this  line,  and  after  every  victory  and  suc 
cessful  turn,  to  accumulate  supplies,  than  he  had  to 
whip  the  enemy.  The  two  armies,  right  and  left  of 
him,  moved  on  with  ease,  and  while  their  generals 
were  congratulated  on  their  mamjeuvres,  Rosecrans 
was  censured  for  delay,  although  at  every  halt  he 
\von  a  victory  and  rebuilt  his  railroad.  His  objec 
tive  point  was  Chattanooga,  the  Gibraltar  of  the 
South.  Nature  built  the  impregnable  fortifications 
of  the  place,  while  almost  impassable  mountains 
stretched  their  palisades  east  and  west  for  two  hun 
dred  miles. 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  83 

Rosecrans,  after  delays  Stanton  could  not  or 
would  not  appreciate,  and  the  people  grew  impatient 
over,  penetrated  these  mountains,  turned  Bragg's 
flank,  and  forcing-  the  Confederate  to  a  fight  on  equal 
terms,  repulsed  him  and  fell  back  on  Chattanooga. 
He  had  accomplished  his  objective  point.  He  had 
won  the  apparently  impregnable  fort,  from  which 
our  armies  operated  from  that  out,  and  his  reward 
was,  to  be  dismissed  under  a  cloud  of  lies,  in  the  most 
insulting  and  brutal  manner.  This  was  so  evident, 
that  Thomas,  who  had  won  our  victory  at  Chicka- 
mauga  from  the  very  jaws  of  defeat,  repudiated  the 
call  made  on  him  to  succeed  Rosecrans,  and  only 
accepted  when  forced,  after  he  had  put  on  record 
his  high  appreciation  of  his  late  commander. 

Stanton 's  impulses  have  placed  his  memory  in  a 
false  position,  and  I  fear  that  in  stating  so  broadly 
his  enmities  I  shall  add  to  this  erroneous  impression. 
Strong  as  were  his  feelings,  there  was  one  sentiment 
that  overrode  and  controlled  all  others,  and  that  was 
his  patriotism.  The  cases  of  Milroy  and  Rosecrans 
really  make  exceptions  to  his  general  conduct.  When, 
through  his  own  choice  or  that  of  the  President,  he 
gave  a  general  command,  he  did  all  in  his  power  to 
make  that  command  a  success.  He  was  really  at 
tached,  personally,  to  McClellan  until  he  discovered 
that  officer's  incapacity,  and  he  had,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  dislike  for  Grant ;  yet  to  both  he  gave  his 
best  endeavors  and  all  the  resources  of  his  depart 
ment. 


84  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

That  there  was  feeling-  between  Stanton  and  Grant 
can  be  learned  from  Grant's  memoirs,  in  which  that 
general  repays  Stanton's  efforts/  m  his  behalf  by 
striving1  to  put  the  Secretary  to  record  as  an  im 
becile. 

It  is  not  generally  known  how  this  personal  differ 
ence  came  about.  The  history  of  Grant's  military 
career  exhibits  to  the  ordinary  reader  the  fact  that 
the  great  Secretary  not  only  gave  the  General  unlim 
ited  command,  but  hurried  to  his  support  all  the 
resources  of  the  Government.  The  fact  is,  however, 
that  Stanton,  in  common  with  his  eminent  associates, 
had  a  contempt  for  the  mere  military  man.  This,  of 
course,  is  not  shared  by  the  general  public.  Through 
all  ages  the  man-killer  has  been  the  hero  in  the  pop 
ular  mind.  The  false  yet  fascinating-  glamour  of  war 
blinds  the  masses  to  the  fact  that  a  mere  leader  of 
men  is  such  through  an  absence  of  the  higher  intel 
lectual  qualities.  His  self-reliance  that  makes  him 
eminent  is  the  result  of  ignorance.  The  more  we 
know  the  less  we  seem  to  ourselves  to  know ;  and 
while  the  leader  acts  with  the  promptness  necessary 
to  success  the  thoughtful  mind  hesitates,  making 
obstacles  impossibilities.  Had  Buell,  for  example, 
known  less  he  would  have  been  more  successful.  The 
common  mind  takes  no  note  of  the  fact  that  when  the 
war  came  on  men  totally  unknown  to  the  country  as 
great  in  any  respect,  not  only  came  to  the  front, 
but  thrust  aside  all  the  statesmen  whom  the  country 
had  loved  and  followed.  Nor  do  these  people  see  that 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  85 

when  the  war  ended  the  continuance  of  such  military 
men  in  power  proved  a  nuisance  and  a  burden. 

Had  Grant  died  under  the  shadow  of  Lee's  sur 
rendered  sword,  before  he  could  have  been  used  by  the 
politicians,  few  would  venture  to  question  a  monu 
ment,  however  unjust,  that  would  rise  above  the 
shaft  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  Washington.  As 
a  politician — and  history  will  record  the  fact — he  did 
more  to  destroy  our  Government  through  corruption 
than  he  did  to  sustain  it  with  his  sword. 

Stanton,  with  his  usual  frankness,  had  no  hesita 
tion  in  expressing  his  contempt  for  Grant,  but  he 
always  added,  "  The  man  will  fight."  This  con 
tempt  came  from  an  event  not  generally  known,  but 
nevertheless  a  fact.  When  the  Army  of  the  Cumber 
land  was  cooped  up  in  Chattanooga,  with  starvation 
or  surrender  staring  it  in  the  face,  Stanton  hurried 
west  to  meet  Grant  at  Louisville  and  consult  him  as 
to  the  best  means  for  relieving  our  beleaguered  forces. 
The  day  on  which  they  met  was  given  to  these 
considerations,  and  the  wire  between  Chattanooga 
and  Louisville  trembled  with  continuous  messages. 
When  night  came  the  two  men  separated  with  an 
understanding  that  after  an  hour  devoted  to  rest  and 
refreshment,  they  should  meet  again  and  continue 
their  labor.  The  next  morning  General  Grant  was 
to  leave  for  Chattanooga. 

When  the  time  came  for  the  meeting  Grant  did  not 
appear.  Stanton  waited  impatiently,  receiving  the 
telegrams  that  continued  to  pour  in,  and  at  last  se-t 


86  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

for  the  General.  He  could  not  be  found.  It  was 
suggested  that  he  had  gone  to  the  theatre.  The 
Secretary,  amazed  and  disgusted,  had  the  theatres 
searched  without  success.  At  last,  long  after  mid 
night,  the  General  was  found  in  a  place,  and  under 
circumstances,  not  necessary  to  relate  to  those  who 
knew  the  habits  of  this  renowned  warrior.  Had  he 
been  of  a  sensitive  nature  he  would,  under  the  savage 
reprimand  of  the  Secretary,  have  then  and  there 
disappeared  from  history,  as  his  supposed  friend, 
General  Sherman,  said,  on  another  occasion  at  Don- 
elson. 

A  like  misunderstanding  attends  the  personal  dif 
ference  between  Stanton  and  Sherman. 

It  is  popularly  believed  that  this  personal  differ 
ence  between  these  two  men  originated  in  the  usur 
pation  of  power  indulged  in  by  General  Sherman  in 
making  terms  of  surrender  with  General  Johnson. 
By  these  terms  Sherman  coolly  undertook  to  settle  all 
the  political  issues  of  the  war.  He  put  the  President, 
Congress,  and  the  courts  aside,  and  for  the  time 
being  arrogated  to  himself  all  the  powers  of  the 
Government. 

The  President  wras  aroused  at  this  egotistical 
exhibit  of  a  subordinate,  but  Stanton,  Chase,  and 
Seward  were  indignant,  especially  the  first  named. 

The  fact  is,  however,  that  Stanton's  wrath  at 
Sherman  antedated  this  event,  and  had  birth  in  Sher 
man's  march  to  the  sea.  That  Sherman's  army 
should  further  penetrate  the  South  and  really  cut  the 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  87 

Confederacy  in  two  by  destroying1  the  railroads,  and 
the  stores,  building's,  and  machine-shops  at  Augus 
ta,  the  great  Southern  military  manufactory  and 
arsenal,  and  not  only  sever  but  hold  the  lines  by 
which  the  Confederate  Army  at  Richmond  received 
reinforcements  and  supplies,  but  at  the  same  time 
leave  a  sufficient  force  with  Thomas  to  hold  the  Con 
federate  Army  under  Hood  in  check,  was  the  expec 
tation  of  the  War  Department  at  Washington. 

Instead  of  this,  Sherman  disappeared  from  the 
front  with  nearly  his  entire  force,  and,  while  avoiding 
all  enemies  except  the  Georgia  militia,  left  Thomas 
with  only  twenty-two  thousand  men  scattered  over 
half  of  Tennessee  to  cope  with  an  army  that  had 
come  near  proving  too  much  for  the  one  hundred 
thousand  veterans  Sherman  had  led  against  Atlanta. 

A  panic,  which  extended  to  the  headquarters 
before  Richmond,  seized  the  Government  at  Wash 
ington.  And  well  it  might.  The  Government  learned, 
to  its  consternation,  that  while  Sherman  had  aban 
doned  all  that  had  been  gained  through  such  a  vast 
expenditure  of  blood  and  treasure,  for  a  holiday 
march  to  the  sea,  the  Confederacy  contemplated 
a  stroke  that  was  to  revive  the  drooping  fortunes  of 
its  cause,  and  justify  France  in  at  last  interfering 
from  Mexico  in  the  desperate  struggle.  To  this  end 
Hood  had  been  furnished  with  all  the  men  and  means 
in  the  power  of  the  Confederate  Government  to 
gather  on  the  Tennessee  in  order  to  cut  Sherman's 
communications  and  march  to  the  Ohio.  The  Gov- 


88  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

eminent  regarded  Sherman's  march,  as  he  conducted 
it,  as  a  monstrous  blunder  until  Thomas  gave  relief 
by  defeating-  Hood  at  Nashville.  It  was  a  desperate 
chance,  which  no  other  man  than  George  H.  Thomas 
could  have  made  a  success. 

Lincoln,  with  a  philosophy  which  accepted  as  well 
all  that  ended  well,  forgave  the  blunderer;  but 
Stanton  did  not ;  and  when  Sherman  added  insult  to 
injury  by  undertaking  the  reconstruction  of  the 
South,  Stanton  expressed  himself  in  terms  far  more 
forcible  than  polite. 

It  matters  little  how  much  a  man  may  be  warped 
by  the  rough  usage  of  the  world,  or  how  moulded 
into  another  form  lay  contact  with  adverse  circum 
stances,  there  yet  remains  hidden  in  him  the  youth 
that,  as  the  poet  tells  us,  is  the  father  of  the  man. 
Stanton 's  great  force  of  character  and  impulsive 
nature  became  fierce  and  aggressive,  not  through 
lack  of  kindly  feeling  on  his  part,  but,  as  I  have  said, 
from  disease  that  overwhelmed  his  nervous  system, 
and  from  the  strain  of  the  onerous  duties  so  unex 
pectedly  thrust  upon  him.  A  man  in  a  high  place 
who  devotes  himself  to  a  small  object  and  ignores 
the  weightier  responsibilities  of  his  position,  may 
retain  his  composure  and  improve  his  health.  This 
was  not  Stanton.  His  great  patriotic  heart  felt,  as 
his  brain  recognized,  the  difficulties  and  responsibil 
ities  of  his  place,  and,  with  his  eye  single  to  the  good 
of  the  whole  country,  he  assumed  and  struggled  con 
stantly  under  the  entire  weight  of  his  office.  In 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  89 

commenting  upon  his  defects,  we  have  to  take  into 
account  the  trying-  period  of  four  years  during  which 
he  acted  so  important  a  part.  The  country  he  loved 
with  intense  earnestness  was  in  the  direst  peril. 
Huge  armies  were  enrolled  and  hastily  organized 
under  his  immediate  direction  to  do  battle  for  the 
Government,  and  almost  every  hour  brought  news  of 
shameful  disasters  and  defeats  of  the  brave  men  he 
was  instrumental  in  sending  to  the  front.  In  judging 
of  his  impatience  and  comparative  cruelty,  and  of 
the  many  cases  of  positive  injustice,  we  must  take 
into  consideration  all  these  circumstances  and  sur 
roundings.  He  worked  in  the  midst  of  a  tremendous 
tumult,  and  one  man  only  seemed  to  rise  above  the 
confusion  and  disorder  to  a  calm  consideration,  not 
only  of  the  great  struggle  going  on,  but  of  all  the 
details  in  which  inoffensive  men  and  helpless  women' 
were  trampled  under.  That  man  was  Abraham 
Lincoln.  While  Stanton  grew  furious  almost  to  in 
sanity  over  the  failures  of  his  generals  that  sent 
desolation  and  misery  to  the  households  all  over  the 
land,  Lincoln  was  not  only  cool  and  quiet,  but  found 
time  and  patience  to  help  the  hurt,  and  sympathize 
with  the  unfortunate  who  came  in  contact  with  him. 
We  should  do  Edwin  M.  Stanton  great  injustice 
were  we  to  omit  these  mitigating  circumstances. 
That  he  was  impatient,  tyrannical,  and  sometimes 
unjust,  we  have  to  admit,  but,  as  I  have  said,  these 
were  defects  traceable  to  his  ill-health  and  to  the 
press  of  affairs  crowded  into  those  four  years  of 


90  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

national  trial.  His  heart,  under  all  its  rough  exte 
rior,  would  beat  kindly  when  reached  by  suffering-, 
and  in  proof  of  this  we  have  the  fact  that  in  all  that 
time  it  was  open  to  the  common  soldier.  No  man 
from  the  ranks  appeared  about  the  Department  with 
a  complaint  that  he  did  not  receive  immediate  atten 
tion  from  the  great  Secretary  ;  and  when  such  atten 
tion  was  obtained,  there  was  no  rank,  however  high, 
that  could  exempt  the  wrong-doer  from  investigation 
and  punishment.  These  were  not  the  acts  of  a 
demagogue  seeking  popularity  with  the  commons. 
Stanton  had  no  ambition  beyond  the  conquest  of  the 
South,  and  felt  that  he  did  not  know  that  his  life 
could  be  extended  beyond  his  term  of  office  in  the 
War  Department;  and  he  had,  therefore,  no  other 
motive  than  the  discharge  of  his  immediate  duties. 

In  illustration  of  his  kind  disposition  when  ap 
proached  from  the  ranks,  I  have  the  following  story 
from  an  officer  who  happened  to  be  present  on  the 
occasion  to  which  I  refer. 

It  was  during  the  morning  hour  when  the  Secre 
tary's  office  was  open  to  all  comers,  and  therefore 
crowded  with  the  usual  collection  of  contractors, 
officers,  Members  of  Congress,  and  others  having 
business  with  the  Department.  Into  this  crowd  came 
a  young  man,  scarcely  indeed  more  than  a  boy,  rag 
ged,  dirty,  and  evidently  in  ill-health.  He  stole  in 
timidly  and  stood  leaning  against  the  wall  near  the 
door  as  if  too  feeble  to  stand  alone.  The  Secreta 
ry,  whose  keen  eye  seemed  to  take  in  all  about  him. 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  91 

saw  the  poor  fellow,  and  brushing-  aside  the  officers 
crowding-  about  him,  called  the  boy  to  him  and  said: 
"  Well,  my  lad,  what  can  I  do  for  you  ?  " 

The  soldier,  without  saying-  a  word  in  repry,  drew 
a  letter  from  his  pocket  and  handed  it  to  the  Secre 
tary.  The  letter  was  torn  open  and  hastily  read,  and 
when  read  Stanton  cried,  "Come  here,  all  of  you,'' 
and  as  they  gathered  about  him,  read  the  letter 
aloud,  and  then  holding  it  up,  added,  "  I  would 
rather  be  worthy  of  this  letter  than  have  the  highest 
commission  in  the  Army  of  the  United  States." 

It  was  an  appeal  from  George  H.  Thomas  in 
behalf  of  the  bearer,  a  survivor  of  the  men  sent  South 
by  Gen.  O.  M.  Mitchell  to  burn  the  bridges  and  de 
stroy  the  railway  communications  of  the  Confederates 
before  the  battle  of  Shiloh.  The  youth's  companions 
had  been  caught  and  hanged,  and  he  had  escaped 
more  dead  than  alive.  Reaching  the  Union  lines, 
nearly  a  year  elapsed  before  he  was  able  to  leave  the 
hospital,  and  General  Thomas  urged  earnestly  that 
he  might  be  rewarded. 

Again  turning  to  the  boy,  Stanton  asked,  with 
considerable  emotion  in  his  voice,  what  he  could  do 
for  him. 

The  lad  said,  "  Let  me  g-o  home.  I  want  to  see 
my  mother." 

"You  shall  go  home,"  said  the  Secretary,  "and 
when  you  return  to  the  army  it  shall  be  as  an  offi 
cer.  This  is  the  sort  of  devotion  that  is  needed  in 
the  service." 


92  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

Edwin  M.  Stan  ton  left  the  War  Department,  not 
only  wrecked  in  health,  but  utterly  ruined  in  fortune. 
The  accumulation  of  an  independence  accomplished 
through  long-  years  of  toil  at  the  bar  disappeared 
during  his  term  of  service,  and  he  left  the  office  a 
poor  man.  It  is  the  system  of  our  great  Republic 
to  develop  mediocrity  in  office,  to  say  nothing  of 
dishonesty,  by  its  economy  in  the  way  of  compensa 
tion  for  services.  When  to  this  we  add  the  uncer 
tain  tenure  of  office,  we  get  at  one  source  of  the 
demoralization  felt  in  our  civil  service. 

Mr.  Stanton  left  few  friends  in  the  Administration 
that  his  patriotic  efforts  had  made  successful.  His 
unfortunate  manner  had  offended  the  officers  of  the 
army,  and  irritated  the  politicians ;  while  his  hon 
esty  had  antagonized  the  element  that  was  to  govern 
the  country  after  the  wTar.  President  Grant,  as  we 
have  seen,  hated  him.  He  could,  therefore,  hope  for 
no  support  for  his  dependent  family  from  the  Gov 
ernment  he  had  done  so  much  to  preserve.  He  made 
an  attempt  to  resume  his  practice  under  circum 
stances  that  made  a  kind-hearted  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  go  to  his  sick-room  to  hear  an  argu 
ment.  That  Justice  found  the  intellect  clear  and 
vigorous  as  ever,  but  saw  that  the  hand  of  death 
was  on  the  advocate. 

A  vacancy  at  last  occurring  in  the  Supreme  Court, 
all  the  prominent  Republicans  of  House  and  Senate 
went  in  a  body  and  demanded  of  the  President  the 


Edwin  M.  Stanton.  9:> 

commission  that  was  reluctantly  given.  It  came  only 
in  time  to  gratify  the  eyes  of  a  dying  man. . 

Stan  ton  had  his  defects,  but  he  had  no  weaknesses. 
His  very  sins  had  a  fierce  strength  in  them,  that 
helped  on,  instead  of  retarding  his  work.  He  could 
crush  a  personal  enemy  under  the  iron  heel  of  his 
military  power,  but  the  men  he  favored,  such  as 
Hooker,  Pope,  and  Thomas,  were  eminently  fitted  for 
the  tasks  assigned  them. 

Stanton's  was  the  master-mind  of  the  war.  To 
his  indomitable  will  and  iron  nature  we  owe  all  that 
we  accomplished  in  that  direction.  When  he  saw, 
after  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  that  the  Confederacy 
was  sinking  from  sheer  exhaustion,  he  crowded  on 
men  to  stamp  it  out.  He  knew  that  Lee  was  leaving 
a  highway  of  human  bones  to  mark  Grant's  road 
from  the  Rapidan  to  Richmond  ;  that  we  were  hav 
ing  more  killed  than  the  Confederate  generals  had 
in  command ;  he  knew  that  Sherman's  march  on 
Atlanta  was  a  succession  of  bloody  defeats,  and  he 
said,  "  He  can  give  five  men  to  their  one,  and  win  ; 
these  victories  to  the  rebels  are  disasters  they  can 
not  afford."  He  knew  that  forty  thousand  of  our 
poor  fellows  were  dying  of  exposure  and  starvation 
in  Confederate  prisons,  yet  when  Grant  wrote  him 
that  to  liberate  that  number  of  healthy  rebels  would 
be  the  ruin  of  Sherman,  the  exchange  was  stopped. 
There  was  no  sea  of  blood,  no  waste  of  treasure,  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  a  restored  Union  and  the  empire 
of  a  continent. 


04  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

He  finished  his  great  work,  resigned  his  commis 
sion  of  office  and  his  life  at  the  same  instant,  for  lie 
staggered  from  his  Department  on  the  arm  of  Death. 
The  terrible  strain  that  a  fierce  nature  had  actually 
lived  on,  gave  way,  and  the  relaxation  meant  disso 
lution.  The  silver  cord  did  not  snap ;  it  unravelled 
and  fell  to  pieces.  He  died  in  the  golden  glow  of  his 
greatness,  and  was  spared  that  most  pitiable  of  all 
spectacles,  the  hero  who  survives  himself.  It  was  a 
cold,  tempestuous  night,  when  this  stormy  nature 
sank  to  its  last  repose,  and  the  Carnot  "  who  organ 
ized  victory  "  surrendered  quietly  to  the  victor  over 
all. 

As  the  smoke  of  battles  and  the  mist  of  conflicting 
passions  pass  away,  five  grand,  stern  figures  loom 
up  before  us,  standing  strange  and  solemn  as  fates 
raised  by  destiny  to  save  our  Government  in  its  hour 
of  periJ .  The  monument  to  Lincoln  has  not  yet  been 
built.  When  it  is,  the  column  that  holds  aloft  the 
form  of  our  greatest  man  of  that  trying  period 
should  have  supporting-  the  base  four  bronze  figures 
of  Chase,  Seward,  Stanton,  and  Thomas.  And  so 
will  history,  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  group  those 
to  whom  we  owe  our  existence  as  a  Nation. 


(Bust  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington.) 
SALMON   P.    CHASE. 


SALMON  P.   CHASE. 

THIS  gentleman,  New  Englander  by  birth,  came  to 
the  West  when  quite  a  youth.  A  man  of  fine  intel 
lect  and  rare  culture,  he  had  a  cold,  unimpulsive 
temperament  that  gave  to  his  manners  a  dignified 
reserve  that  repelled  familiarity  and  interfered  mate 
rially  with  his  popularity.  His  fine  presence,  for  he 
was  tall,  erect,  and  admirably  proportioned,  with  his 
grave  manner,  impressed  the  crowd,  and  created  re 
spect  without  liking.  These  qualities  are,  however, 
more  potent  in  the  end  than  more  genial  ones.  Many 
a  statesman  honored  in  his  grave  owed  his  success  in 
life  to  the  length  of  his  legs  and  the  solemnity  of  his 
countenance.  The  late  Tom  Corwin,  of  Ohio,  a  man 
of  genius  and  infinite  humor,  on  one  occasion,  when 
lecturing  me  for  my  disposition  to  joke  with  a  crowd, 
said  : 

"  Don't  do  it,  my  boy.  You  should  ever  re 
member  that  the  crowd  always  looks  up  to  the  ring 
master  and  down  on  the  clown.  It  resents  that 
which  amuses.  The  clown  is  the  more  clever  fellow 
of  the  two,  but  he  is  despised.  If  you  would  succeed 
in  life  you  must  be  solemn,  solemn  as  an  ass.  All 
tlie  great  monuments  of  earth  have  been  built  over 
solemn  asses." 


96  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

Salmon  P.  Chase  was  anything-  but  a  solemn  ass. 
His  intellectual  attainments  put  him  at  the  head  of 
his  profession,  that  of  lawyer,  before  they  made  him 
conspicuous  as  a  politician.  He  was  a  hard  student, 
and  his  thoughtful  processes  assimilated,  well  and 
rapidly,  the  information  he  acquired. 

Looking  at  Chase  through  life,  and  regarding  his 
characteristics  since  his  death,  I  find  now,  as  I  found 
when  we  were  friends,  a  mystery  in  his  being  a 
reformer.  As  I  have  said,  his  motive  for  action  was 
not  in  his  heart.  He  had  no  impulses  of  that  sort 
that  I  could  ever  discover.  The  elevated  plane  upon 
which  he  guided  his  life,  a  singularly  pure  and  just 
one,  came  of  his  stern  sense  of  duty.  This  was  not 
difficult,  for  he  had  no  youth.  He  was  born  an  old 
man  in  that  respect,  and  had  no  heartfelt  impulses 
to  fetch  on  indiscretions.  He  never  used  tobacco  in 
any  form,  nor  wine  save  as  social  decorum  called  for 
its  use.  He  had  passion  without  sentiment,  and 
when  he  married  it  was  with  more  regard  for  the 
proprieties  of  life  than  the  gratification  of  a  lover's 
mad  impulse,  and  herein  lies  the  contradiction  that 
makes  him  a  mystery.  He  had  a  high  regard  for 
the  proprieties  of  life  and  none  whatever  for  the  law. 
Now  reform  is  not  reputable.  Intrenched  wrong 
finds  its  most  powerful  defence  in  its  respectability. 
They  who  seek  to  undermine  the  respectable  are  low 
fellows,  and  the  very  name  assumed  by  the  reformer 
becomes  one  of  reproach.  Long  after  the  death  of 
our  Saviour  to  be  called  a  Christian  was  to  have 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  97 

applied  a  term  of  fearful  stain  which  justified  imme 
diate  and  shameful  death,  as  cruel  and  shameful  as 
that  awarded  our  God  by  the  respectable  classes  of 
Jerusalem.  When  Salmon  P.  Chase  gave  in  his 
open  adhesion  to  the  anti-slavery  cause  he  was  called 
an  Abolitionist.  He  might  as  well,  considering-  the 
effect,  have  been  denounced  as  a  thief  or  a  burglar. 
His  reputable  friends — and  having  married  into  a 
wealthy  and  aristocratic  family,  he  had  many  such — 
looked  down  on  him  with  pity  and  contempt. 

Chase,  in  his  shy,  awkward  way,  cultivated  young 
men  remarkable  for  their  evidence  of  intellect  or 
show  of  eccentricity.  I  was  one  of  his  proteges.  I 
write  this  without  claiming  any  compliment  on  that 
score.  One  defect  in  this  eminent  statesman  was  his 
ignorance  of  human  nature.  He  did  not  know  one 
man  from  another  save  in  the  man's  profession.  He 
took  those  very  men  at  the  valuation  acquaintance 
put  on  them.  This  ignorance  added  greatly  to  his 
success,  for  we  lose  more  through  our  suspicions 
than  we  gain  through  our  credulousness.  We  are 
given  to  the  strange  belief  that  back  of  every  man's 
act  lies  a  selfish  motive,  and  this,  although  we  are 
taught  by  a  study  of  ourselves  that  nearly  all  our 
actions  originate  in  impulses  or  from  circumstances 
over  which  we  have  no  control,  or  from  both,  and 
seldom,  if  ever,  from  a  cold,  calculating  consideration 
of  how  we  may  use  others  to  our  own  advantage. 
At  the  same  time,  Chase's  confidence  gave  his  up 
right  character  its  only  taint  in  the  eyes  of  the  world. 


98  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

He  had  around  him,  from  first  to  last,  about  the 
worst  set  of  men  that  ever  environed  a  leader,  and 
these  gave  interpretation  to  many  of  his  acts.  These 
fellows,  of  course,  used  him  to  enrich  or  elevate  them 
selves,  and  the  people  at  large  held  their  master 
responsible. 

On  this  matter  of  good  or  bad  human  nature  Mr. 
Chase  could  reason,  in  a  general  way,  with  the  terse 
epigrammatic  force  so  peculiar  to  him,  without  being* 
able  to  make  personal  application  of  his  knowledge. 
I  remember,  for  example,  visiting  the  Ohio  peniten 
tiary  with  him  while  he  was  Governor  of  the  State. 
Returning,  we  walked  to  the  Capitol.  After  a  long 
silence,  the  Governor  said, (l  There  is  not  much  differ 
ence  between  the  convicts  imprisoned  in  those  walls 
and  the  ordinary  run  of  people  outside."  This  did 
not  surprise  me,  for  I  had  long  before  learned  my 
friend's  character  blindness,  but  when  he  continued 
I  was  surprised  :  ' '  These  poor  fellows  are  not  wick 
ed,  they  are  weak ;  they  have  not  sense  enough  to 
be  cautious,  nor  have  they  enough  strength  of  char 
acter  to  resist  temptation.  The  law  catches  the 
small  rogues,  the  big  rascals  are  too  wary  to  ap 
proach  the  net.  I  think  sometimes  that  our  criminals 
are  not  in  the  penitentiary  but  in  the  churches.  The 
cool,  selfish  villains  wear  the  cloak  of  religion  and 
hedge  themselves  about  with  the  intensest  respecta 
bility.  They  are  our  bad  men,  and  from  them  we 
suffer." 

"  Yes,"  I  added,  "  that  was  the  sort  that  crucified 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  99 

Christ.  He  suffered,  not  for  his  treason,  but  that  he 
was  a  low  fellow — the  associate  of  the  poor  and  an 
agrarian  who  taught  that  property  was  continuous 
theft  before  that  Frenchman  made  his  discovery. 
The  wealthy  Moses  and  sons,  the  high  priests,  the 
aristocrats  of  that  day  and  place  just  sickened  over 
such  vulgar  notions." 

"You  do  wrong,"  said  my  friend,  "  to  habituate 
yourself,  as  I  perceive  you  do,  to  vulgarizing  the 
great  truths  of  revelation.  It  was  an  awful  event, 
let  the  motives  and  passions  of  poor  human  nature 
have  been  what  they  may.  We  should  see  only  our 
Christ  crucified,  and  not  the  horrible  crowd  that  did 
the  deed  without  knowing  what  they  did." 

There  was  no  cant,  not  the  slightest  shade  of  hy 
pocrisy  in  this  rebuke.  Chase  was  truly  of  a  deeply 
religious  nature.  He  believed  with  the  trusting  faith 
of  a  child  in  the  truths  of  revelation,  not  as  an  ab 
stract  thing  separate  and  apart  from  his  daily  life, 
but  this  faith  colored  all  his  character,  and  entered 
into  the  most  minute  details  of  his  life.  We  have  to 
remember,  in  this  connection,  that  he  amended  the 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation  by  that  closing  invoca 
tion  to  the  Supreme  Being  which  President  Lincoln 
had  forgotten,  or  probably  never  thought  of. 

In  common  with  half  a  dozen  other  young  fellows 
admitted  to  the  bar,  but  not  admitted  to  the  practice, 
I  had  the  honor  of  Chase's  intimacy,  and  it  is  amus 
ing  to  look  back  upon  the  patronizing  manner  in 
which  we  sought  to  protect  him.  Of  all  shades  of 


100  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

political  opinion  save  that  of  anti- slavery,  we  felt  a 
sorrow  that  our  great  man  should  be  engaged  in 
such  a  vile  business  as  acting  and  laboring  with  Abo 
litionists.  To  us,  as  to  the  community  generally,  an 
Abolitionist  was  not  only  a  negro  thief,  but  an  asso 
ciate  of  negroes  and  a  disturber  of  the  peace.  None 
the  less  did  we  cling-  to,  and  seek  to  give  Mr.  Chase 
our  protection. 

He  was  to  speak,  one  night,  at  a  little  school-house 
some  four  miles  from  Cincinnati,  and  notice  had  been 
served  on  him  that  if  he  did  he  would  be  mobbed. 
This  had  no  effect  on  Chase.  He  was  a  brave  man, 
and  a  threat  of  violence  only  made  him  the  more  de 
termined  to  fill  his  appointment.  Finding-  our  per 
suasion  of  no  effect,  we  armed  ourselves  and  made 
part  of  the  little  crowd  assembled  in  the  school-house 
to  hear  the  anti-slavery  advocate.  Save  ourselves, 
the  audience  was  mostly  made  up  of  the  long-haired 
men  and  short-haired  women  peculiar  to  all  reforms. 
The  room  was  small,  and  lighted  by  a  few  tallow 
dips,  which  flared  and  sputtered  from  the  air  through 
the  open  windows,  for  it  was  summer.  The  meeting 
being  organized,  Mr.  Chase  was  introduced  and 
began  his  argument.  He  was  not  a  fluent  speaker, 
and  had  a  voice  more  guttural  than  resonant.  With 
few  g-estures  he  spoke  in  an  even,  unemotional  way, 
as  if  addressing  a  court.  He  g-ot  little  aid  from  the 
expression  of  his  fine  face,  for  being  extremely  near 
sighted,  he  had  a  way  of  contracting  his  eyelids,  as  if 
he  were  turning  his  sight  in  on  himself.  He  had 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  101 

uttered  but  few  sentences,  however,  before  a  wild  yell 
from  outside,  which  seemed  to  go  up  from  every 
quarter,  startled  the  little  audience,  and  immediately 
a  quantity  of  eggs  were  thrown  in  with  great  force 
through  the  windows.  The  audience  rose  to  its  feet, 
the  women  screamed,  more  in  wrath,  than  fear,  and 
the  men  gave  utterance  to  more  profanity  than  I 
thought  the  fanatical  were  capable  of.  We,  of  the 
body-guard,  rushed  out,  firing1  our  pistols  right  and 
left,  doing  no  harm  that  I  ever  heard  of,  but  putting 
the  ruffians  so  effectually  to  flight  that  we  had  no 
further  interruption  of  that  sort.  Pistols  were  things 
not  counted  on  by  the  crowd  accustomed  to  ride  over 
Abolitionists  without  resistance.  When  we  returned 
to  the  house,  Mr.  Chase  was  wiping-  a  rotten  egg  from 
his  bosom  with  a  delicate  linen  handkerchief,  and  he 
then  went  on  with  his  speech,  with  no  other  sign  upon 
him  than  a  heightened  color  on  his  handsome  face. 
Through  this  sort  of  thing  a  refined,  dignified  gentle 
man  came  up  to  be  recognized,  in  the  end,  as  the  able 
leader,  if  not  orator,  of  a  party  destined  to  conduct  a 
great  war,  and  control  the  Government  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century  after.  How  he  came  to  be  an  Abolition 
ist  in  the  first  instance  is  as  strange  as  that  in  the 
end  he  should  be  thrust  aside  by  the  party  that  he 
had  done  so  much  to  make  a  power. 

It  was  in  the  office  of  Chase  and  Ball,  on  Third 
Street  in  Cincinnati,  that  the  Republican  party  of 
to-day  was  born.  Doctor  Gamaliel  Bailey,  a  man 
remarkable  for  his  combination  of  thought  and 


102  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

action,  called  the  little  group  of  strong  men  together. 
There  were  present  Chase,  Birney,  Lewis,  and  others 
whose  names  I  have  forgotten,  and  before'  them 
Doctor  Bailey  laid  his  plan  of  an  organization.  He 
said  it  was  absurd  to  have  a  party  outside  of  the 
Constitution  making  war  on  the  Government  itself. 
While  the  organic  law  might  be  a  compact  with  hell, 
it  could  not  be  successfully  assailed  in  an  open  rebel 
lion  .  The  proper  course  was  to  accept  the  guarantees 
of  the  Constitution  as  to  slavery  in  the  States,  but  to 
oppose  its  extension.  This,  in  the  end,  would  be  the 
death  of  the  iniquity,  for  as  slave  labor  exhausted  the 
soil  it  lived  on,  more  territory  was  as  necessary  for 
its  existence  as  the  air  we  breathe. 

This  shrewd  proposition  was  at  once  adopted  by 
the  leading  minds  of  the  anti-slavery  class.  The 
fanatics,  however,  for  a  time,  gave  as  much  trouble 
to  these  practical  chiefs  as  the  Whig  and  Democratic 
parties.  It  was  not  until  the  fight  grew  fierce  over 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  that  the  rank  and  file  swung 
into  line,  and  by  holding  the  balance  between  the 
evenly  divided  parties,  as  to  numbers,  became  a 
power  in  the  land. 

I  have  often  thought  since,  that  had  the  Southern 
slaveholders  possessed  the  ability  which  distinguished 
these  early  Abolitionists  what  a  different  result  we 
would  be  putting  to  record.  If,  instead  of  setting  up 
a  Government  of  their  own,  these  Southern  leaders 
had  fought  for  what  they  were  pleased  to  term  their 
rights  under  the  Constitution  and  the  flag  of  our 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  103 

Union,  they  would  have  had  the  sympathy  of  a 
majority  of  the  North  and  the  co-operation  of  nearly 
the  entire  Democratic  party  on  the  free  side  of  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line.  But  when  they  seceded  into  a  con 
federacy,  threw  out  an  alien  flag,  and  fired  on  Sum- 
ter,  they  changed  the  issue  from  a  question  of  States' 
rights  under  the  Constitution  to  an  armed  conflict 
between  rival  sections ;  and  the  war  went  on,  not  to 
save  or  destroy  slavery,  but  to  save  or  destroy  the 
nation. 

This  was  Chase's  thought  as  well  as  my  own.  I 
have  often  heard  him  say  that  we  owed  more  to  Jeff. 
Davis  for  his  folly,  than  to  Abraham  Lincoln  for  his 
cautious  wisdom. 

The  Whig  party,  that  was  born  of  the  old  Fed 
eral  organization  and  Henry  Clay,  and  had  great 
men  and  great  measures,  without  principles  other 
than  a  conservatism  of  property  privileges,  went  to 
pieces,  and  the  anti-slavery  organization  fell  heir  to 
its  votes.  Before  this,  however,  Chase,  holding  the 
balance  of  power,  was  first  made  Senator  and  after 
ward  Governor  of  Ohio. 

That  man  is  great  who  rises  successfully  to  the 
emergency  in  which  he  is  called  to  act.  Chase,  in 
the  Senate,  represented  nobody  save  Morse  and 
Townsend,  the  two  pivotal  votes  on  which  he  was 
returned ;  but  his  dignity  and  power  made  his  sov 
ereign  State  glad  to  recognize  him  as  her  Senator, 
at  a  time  when  our  House  of  Lords  held  the  high 
est  political  intellect  in  the  land,  and  was  not,  as 


104  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

now,  an  incompetent  collection  of  millionaires.  As 
Governor  he  not  only  consolidated  and  held  the 
Whig  vote,  but  he  drew  over  a  large  Democratic 
support  of  young  men  glad  to  recognize  a  leader 
of  such  brain  and  power. 

When  the  newly-organized  party  met  at  Chicago 
to  nominate  a  presidential  candidate,  Chase  stood 
prominent  as  an  available  man.  The  Seward  party 
fighting  Chase  fortunately  opened  the  way  to  the 
nomination  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

President  Lincoln  called  Chase  to  the  Cabinet  as 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  This  was  a  casualt}7. 
Had  Mr.  Lincoln  known  of  the  war  that  was  to 
follow  his  inauguration,  it  is  not  likely  that  he 
would  have  selected  a  man  so  entirely  ignorant  of 
finance,  and  all  that  pertains  to  that  vexed  busi 
ness,  as  this  man,  who  had  never  given  the  subject 
a  thought,  let  alone  any  study.  An  illustration  of 
this  is  found  in  the  Secretary  calling-  in  the  good 
Father  Edward  Purcell,  of  Cincinnati,  to  advise 
with  him  as  to  what  measures  wrere  the  best  to 
carry  on  the  fiscal  agency  of  a  great  Government, 
so  strangely  intrusted  to  his  untried  hands. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  proved  an  eminent 
Secretary  on  the  fact  I  see  demonstrated  every  da}^ 
and  that  fact  is  that  a  man  is  the  most  success 
ful  in  the  business  which  he  knows  the  least  about. 
The  man  who  buys  to  gratify  his  own  taste  is  the 
man  who  will  be  his  own  only  customer  when  it 
comes  to  selling  again.  The  ignorant  man,  seeking 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  105 

to  cater  to  the  tastes  and  wants  of  his  patrons,  is 
eager  to  learn,  and  open  to  all  information  in  that 
direction.  The  manager  of  a  theatre  who  does  not 
know  Shakespeare  from  Dion  Boucicault,  and  looks  to 
the  box  office  for  guidance  on  the  stage ;  the  book 
seller,  ignorant  of  the  inside  of  all  books,  who  looks 
solely  to  the  purchaser  of  books;  the  editor  who 
writes  down  to  the  depraved  tastes  of  the  multitude; 
the  shoemaker  who  looks  to  the  corns  and  bunions 
of  his  buyers  instead  of  his  own,  are  all  illustrations 
of  what  I  say.  Salmon  P.  Chase  not  only  took  the 
good  father  into  his  confidence,  but  listened  with 
inexhaustible  patience  to  the  practical  financiers  who 
knew  less  on  the  subject  that  made  their  business 
than  any  other  class  of  men  in  the  country. 

The  war  came  on.  It  \vas  the  costliest  war  ever 
known  to  a  civilized  people,  for  we  had  to  pay  cash 
for  our  experience.  To  get  up  a  regiment  called  for 
as  much  money  as  to  govern  a  State— not  less  than 
a  million  dollars  per  year  for  each  thousand  men. 
To  put  an  army  of  seventy-five  thousand  armed  men 
into  the  field,  and  to  keep  them  there,  bade  fair  to 
bankrupt  the  Government.  The  Secretary,  in  this 
awful  emergency,  found  at  his  back  an  empty  treas 
ury  and  a  ruined  credit.  There  was  no  time  to  levy 
and  collect  taxes,  and  had  there  been  the  secession  of 
the  Southern  States  carried  out  our  great  staple 
on  which  our  wonderful  prosperity  had  been  built, 
and  the  artillery  that  shot  down  our  flag  at  Sumter 
utterly  prostrated  the  business  of  the  country. 


106  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

The  only  way  open  was  to  borrow,  and  even  that 
seemed  closed  to  the  anxious  Government  at  Wash 
ington.  Capital  is  not  only  sensitive  to  danger,  but 
from  that  very  fact  is  selfish,  and  with  no  touch 
whatever  of  patriotism.  We  read  of  noble  women 
contributing  their  jewelry  to  a  cause,  of  pious  men 
of  God  melting  their  bells  into  cannon,  but  we  never 
read  of  money -getters  fetching  out  their  hidden  bags 
under  patriotic  impulse  in  aid  of  a  forlorn  hope. 

The  country  was  aroused  to  a  frenzy  by  the  inso 
lence  of  the  South  in  firing  on  the  flag  of  the  Fa 
thers,  and  men,  God  bless  them,  volunteered  to  fight 
in  such  numbers  that  the  Government  found  difficulty 
in  enrolling  and  arming  them.  Capital  was  also 
vociferous.  It  took  the  iron-bound  oath  of  allegiance 
at  all  hours.  It  made  speeches  of  much  sound,  if 
not  eloquence,  urging  men  to  volunteer,  but  no  man 
brought  out  his  hoarded  gold  to  aid  the  struggling 
Government  in  its  hour  of  peril. 

The  able  Secretary  lost  no  time  in  appeals  to  the 
Shylocks.  He  turned  to  the  noble,  patriotic  people, 
who  were  wheeling  into  line  to  the  roll  of  the  drums, 
for  the  credit  he  needed,  and  issued  the  greenback. 
A  history  of  this  transaction  is  curiously  illustrative 
of  the  two  men,  Lincoln  and  Chase,  concerned  therein. 
Of  course  the  idea  of  issuing  money  directly  by  the 
Government  to  meet  an  emergency  was  as  old  as 
governments  themselves.  But  Amasa  Walker,  a 
distinguished  financier  of  New  England,  had  a 
thought  that  was  new.  He  suggested  that  the  notes 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  107 

thus  issued  directly  from  the  Government  to  the  peo 
ple  as  currency  should  bear  interest.  This  for  the 
purpose  not  only  of  making'  the  notes  popular,  but 
for  the  purpose  of  preventing-  inflation  by  inducing 
people  to  hoard  the  notes  as  an  investment  when 
the  demands  of  trade  failed  to  call  them  into  circula 
tion  as  a  currency.  This  idea  struck  Mr.  David 
Taylor,  of  Ohio,  Avith  such  force  that  he  sought  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  urged  him  to  put  the  project  into  imme 
diate  execution.  The  President  listened  patiently, 
and  at  the  end  said,  "  That  is  a  good  idea,  Taylor, 
but  you  must  go  to  Chase.  He  is  running  that  end 
of  the  machine,  and  has  time  to  consider  your  propo 
sition." 

Taylor  sought  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and 
laid  before  him  Amasa  Walker's  plan.  Chase  heard 
him  through  in  a  cold,  unpleasant  manner,  and  then 
said,  "  That  is  all  very  well,  Mr.  Taylor,  but  there 
is  one  little  obstacle  in  the  w&y,  that  makes  the  plan 
impracticable,  and  that  is  the  Constitution." 

Sa3ring  this,  he  turned  to  his  desk  as  if  dismissing- 
both  Mr.  Taylor  and  his  proposition  at  the  same 
moment.  The  poor  enthusiast  felt  rebuked  and  hu 
miliated.  He  returned  to  the  President,  however, 
and  reported  his  defeat.  Mr.  Lincoln  looked  at  the 
would-be  financier  with  the  expression  at  times  so 
peculiar  to  his  homely  face,  and  that  left  one  in 
doubt  as  to  whether  he  was  jesting  or  in  earnest. 

"  Taylor,"  he  exclaimed,  "go  back  to  Chase  and 
tell  him  not  to  bother  himself  about  the  Constitution. 


108  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

Say  that  I  have  that  sacred  instrument  here  at  the 
White  House,  and  I  am  guarding1  it  with  great 
care." 

:  Mr.  David  Taylor  demurred  to  this  on  the  ground 
that  Mr.  Chase  showed  by  his  manner  that  he  knew 
all  about  it  and  didn't  wish  to_be  bored  by  any  sug 
gestions. 

"  We'll  see  about  that,"  exclaimed  the  President, 
and  taking  a  card  from  the  table  he  wrote  upon  it : 

"The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  will  please  consider  Mr. 
Taylor's  proposition.  We  must  have  money,  and  I  think  this 
a  good  way  to  get  it.  A.  LINCOLN." 

Armed  with  this,  the  real  father  of  the  greenbacks 
again  sought  the  Secretary.  He  was  received  more 
politely  than  before,  but  was  cut  short  in  his  advo 
cacy  of  the  measure  by  a  proposition  for  both  of  them 
to  see  the  President.  They  did  so,  and  Mr.  Chase 
made  a  long  and  elaborate  constitutional  argument 
against  the  proposed  measure.  "Chase,"  said  Mr. 
Lincoln,  after  the  Secretary  had  concluded,  "  down 
in  Illinois  I  was  held  to  be  a  pretty  good  lawyer,  and 
I  believe  I  could  answer  every  point  you  have  made, 
but  I  don't  feel  called  upon  to  do  it.  This  thing 
reminds  me  of  a  story  I  read  in  a  newspaper  the 
other  day.  It  was  of  an  Italian  captain,  who  run 
his  vessel  on  a  rock  and  knocked  a  hole  in  her  bottom. 
He  set  his  men  to  pumping  and  he  went  to  prayers 
before  a  figure  of  the  Virgin  in  the  bow  of  the  ship. 
The  leak  gained  on  them.  It  looked  at  last  as  if  the 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  109 

vessel  would  go  down  Avith  all  on  board.  The  cap 
tain,  at  length,  in  a  fit  of  rage  at  not  having  his 
prayers  answered,  seized  the  figure  of  the  Virgin 
and  threw  it  overboard.  Suddenly  the  leak  stopped, 
the  water  was  pumped  out,  and  the  vessel  got  safely 
into  port.  When  docked  for  repairs,  the  statue  of 
the  Virgin  Mary  was  found  stuck  head-foremost  in 
the  hole." 

"  I  don't  see,  Mr.  President,  the  precise  application 
of  your  story,"  said  Mr.  Chase. 

"  Why,  Chase,  I  don't  intend  precisely  to  throw 
the  Virgin  Mary  overboard,  and  by  that  I  mean  the 
Constitution,  but  I  will  stick  it  in  the  hole  if  I  can. 
These  rebels  are  violating  the  Constitution  to  destroy 
the  Union,  I  will  violate  the  Constitution,  if  neces 
sary,  to  save  the  Union,  and  I  suspect,  Chase,  that 
our  Constitution  is  going  to  have  a  rough  time  of  it 
before  we  get  done  with  this  row.  Now,  what  I 
want  to  know  is  whether,  Constitution  aside,  this 
project  of  issuing  interest-bearing  notes  is  a  good 
one." 

"I  must  say,"  responded  Mr.  Chase,  "that  with 
the  exception  you  make,  it  is  not  only  a  good  one, 
but  the  only  way  open  to  us  to  raise  money.  If  you 
say  so,  I  will  do  my  best  to  put  it  into  immediate  and 
practical  operation,  and  you  will  never  hear  from  me 
any  opposition  on  this  subject." 

The  people  eagerly  accepted  the  loan  which  the 
capitalists  were  prompt  to  depreciate  and  dishonor. 

No  one  can  measure  correctly  the  masterly  man- 


110  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

agement  of  this  statesman,  who  does  not  accept  and 
appreciate  the  difficulties  that  beset  his  way.  The 
intense  selfishness  of  the  class  that  owed  its  all  to 
the  Government  he  was  struggling-  to  sustain,  bade 
fair  to  be  more  fatal  to  us  than  all  the  armed  legions 
of  the  South,  fierce  and  successful  as  they  were. 
While  our  soldiers  in  the  field  and  the  laborer  left  at 
home  accepted  the  greenback  at  par,  hungry,  unpa 
triotic  capital  higgled  over  its  marble  counters,  dis 
counting  the  currency  that  was  the  life-blood  of  our 
Government.  It  was  not  until  after  the  fortunes  of 
war  took  a  turn,  and  the  "  lost  cause,"  through  ex 
haustion,  staggered  from  fields  that  were  disasters 
to  it,  although  shouted  over  as  victories,  that  the 
money  power  came  out  cautiously  at  first,  not  in  aid 
of  the  Government,  but  to  invest  for  a  profit.  Gov 
ernment  bonds  were  bought  with  greenbacks  got  at 
a  ruinous  discount,  and  these  same  bonds  were 
pledged  for  redemption  in  coin. 

I  write  this  without  feeling  against  the  capitalist. 
We  must  take  the  world  as  it  is.  I  suppose  a  rich 
man  is  as  necessary  to  our  existence  as  any  other 
objectionable  creature  the  necessity  for  the  existence 
of  which  is  a  mystery.  He  does  live,  and  his  living 
was  a  sad  obstacle  in  the  way  of  success  to  our  im 
perilled  nationality.  To  appreciate,  as  I  have  said, 
the  eventual  triumph  of  Salmon  P.  Chase,  we  must 
know,  and  appreciate,  the  capitalist. 

The  peculiar  power,  the  sacredness  that  attaches 
to  money,  in  tke  eyes  of  men,  has  always  been  a 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  Ill 

.mystery  to  me.  Now,  it  is  accepted  as  the  right  of 
Government,  when  threatened  with  violence,  to  enter 
the  poor  man's  hut  and  bid  him  come  out  and 
.shoulder  his  musket  to  light  for  his  Government. 
The  poor  fellow,  with  more  or  less  tearful  leave- taking 
of  the  family  of  which  he  is  the  humble  bread-winner 
—and  without  waiting  to  negotiate  a  gold-bearing 
bond — marches  out  to  be  killed  or  mutilated,  with  no 
other  compensation  than  his  miserable  pittance,  that, 
if  wounded,  attenuates  into  a  pension  if  his  Govern 
ment  survives,  or  if  killed  he  has  the  sweet  ceremony 
.of  strewing  flowers  over  his  grave. 

How  the  heart  thrills  to  the  memory  of  the  noble 
response  our  poor  men  made  to  this  demand.  One 
remembers  those  broad-shouldered  handsome  fellows, 
in  the  bloom  of  life,  crowding  the  cars  in  laughter, 
amid  the  roll  of  drums,  the  waving  of  banners,  with 
flowers  thrown  to  them  from  trembling  hands,  and 
farewell  smiles  that  covered  Caching  hearts.  And 
one  remembers  how  they  returned  in  wooden  boxes 
or  limped  home  with  mangled  bodies,  or  never  re 
turned,  but  filled  unknown  graves  in  far-off  battle 
fields,  and  even  now  seems  to  hear  the  desolation 
that,  like  a  low,  wailing  undertone  to  the  strains  of 
triumph,  swept  over  all  the  land. 

Well,  if  the  Government,  in  this  way,  can  take 
the  poor  man's  life,  can  it  not  take  the  rich  man's 
money  ?  What  is  there  so  sacred  about  this  thing 
that  it  must  be  guarded  above  life  ?  What  is  it,  in 
.gold,  that  the  blood-stain  does  not  tarnish,  and  why 


112  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

is  it  that  what  God  shuts  out  from  heaven  as  ac 
cursed  should  be  our  god  on  earth  ? 

I  hear  the  capitalist  denouncing1  this  as  demagog- 
ism,  as  insincere,  and  not  true.  Does  not  capital 
pay  the  taxes  ?  Does  not  capital  give  these  soldiers 
their  wages,  and  insure  them  their  pensions  ?  No,  it 
does  nothing  of  the  sort,  and  you  add  insult  to  injury 
by  the  assertion.  For  a  thousand  years  the  wisest 
law-makers  have  been  striving  to  make  accumulated 
capital  pay  its  share  of  taxation,  and  they  are  as 
near  the  impossible  now  as  when  they  began.  As 
well  try  to  make  the  p37ramid  support  itself  on  its 
apex.  Taxation  reaches  down  to  the  base ;  but  the 
base  is  labor,  and  labor  pays  all.  The  man  riding  to 
mill  on  a  sack  of  grain  does  not  relieve  the  horse  under 
him  by  shifting  the  sack,  even  if  the  rider  transfers  it 
to  his  shoulder.  The  sons  of  the  men  who  went  out  to 
fight  are  paying  the  debt  that  grew  out  of  their 
fathers'  service,  are  paying  the  pensions,  and,  more 
than  all,  are  redeeming  the  bonds  that  have  in  fact 
been  paid  twice  over  before  their  redemption. 

No  better  illustration  of  the  stress  under  which 
the  Government  labored  can  be  given  than  the  crea 
tion  of  the  national  banks.  To  fetch  these  moneyed 
corporations,  the  banks,  in  accord  with,  not  to  say 
support  of,  the  Government  that  gives  them  protec 
tion,  the  most  extraordinary  privileges  were  granted 
them.  To  farm  out  the  fiscal  agency  found  in  the 
creation  of  a  circulating  medium  was  no  new  thing, 
but  to  permit  these  corporations  to  purchase  Govern- 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  113 

rnent  bonds  in  depreciated  currency,  at  a  heavy  dis 
count,  and  then  accept  the  same  bonds  at  par  as  a 
basis  for  a  circulating  medium,  was  an  arrangement 
that  nothing  but  the  poverty  and  distress  of  the 
treasury  could  justify.  Secretary  Chase  claimed,  in 
extenuation,  that  he  meant  this  to  be  only  a  war 
measure,  to  cease  when  the  armed  conflict  ended. 
That  this  extraordinary  system  rests  entirely  on  the 
indebtedness  of  the  Government,  and  must  cease 
when  that  indebtedness  is  paid,  gives  plausibility  to 
his  plea. 

A  national  debt,  however,  of  the  magnitude  of  that 
left  us  by  the  war  is  of  slow  liquidation.  Before 
the  eminent  War  Treasurer  died  he  saw  the  conse 
quence  of  his  blunder,  and  that  a  costly  and  oppres 
sive  system  of  banking  had  been  fixed  upon  the 
people  for  all  time  to  come.  It  had  a  certain  hold 
upon  the  favor  of  business  men,  from  a  false  contrast 
that  it  offered  between  our  present  system  and  that 
of  the  old  State  banks  which  preceded  it.  This  con 
trast  is  false,  for  the  evil  complained  of  in  the  banks 
of  a  State's  creation  was  not  in  the  legitimate  bank 
ing  they  did,  but  in  the  currency  they  issued  and  on 
which  they  did  their  business.  These  were  notes  of 
the  banks  authorized  by  the  States,  and  were  at  a 
heavy  discount  beyond  the  limits  of  their  several 
territories.  The  war  which  obliterated  State  lines 
existing  under  the  old  colonial  superstition  of 
sovereignty  gave  us  a  nation  and  a  nation's  credit 
for  a  currency.  The  national  banks  are  precisely 


114  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

the  same  as  the  old  State  banks — no  better,  no  worse 
.- — but  the  currency  in  which  their  business  is  done 
differs,  and  in  this  difference  lies  the  benefit  of 
national  banking-. 

Secretary  Chase  saw  clearly  the  evil  he  had 
inflicted  upon  the  people  he  had  served,  and  his 
anxiety  to  secure  the  Presidency  originated  in  his 
earnest  desire  to  correct  this  one  great  blunder  of 
his  administration.  He  had  called  into  existence  a 
.financial  S3rstem  that,  instead  of  being  firm,  uniform, 
and  safe,  lived  on  a  fluctuation  which  swings  contin 
ually  from  one  extreme  to  the  other,  and  is,  there 
fore,  uncertain,  unstable,  and  dangerous. 

To  understand  this  it  is  necessary  to  recognize  the 
fact  that  money  as  a  measure  of  value  is  an  ab 
stract  idea  made  practical  by  the  Government. 
Based  on  coin,  it  gets  its  use  through  the  stamp  or 
sanction  of  the  Government.  The  trading  world,  in 
the  ages  past,  selected  the  material  through  which 
to  express  this  idea  of  value — a  material  which 
above  all  others  has  a  quality  that  prohibits  its  use 
as  a  circulating  medium,  and  this  is  its  scarcity. 
Were  coin,  gold  and  silver,  abundant  enough  to 
serve  as  a  currency  it  would  lose  its  great  quality 
and  be  no  better  than  iron  and  lead.  When  the 
Government,  then,  coins  and  stamps  the  precious 
metal  it  merely  takes  the  necessary  step  to  keep 
alive  the  visible  symbol  of  an  abstract  proposition. 

Money  for  circulation  through  which  exchange  is 
facilitated,  like  all  other  commodities,  is  measured 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  115 

by  the  great  measure  of  value.  When,  therefore,  a 
note  of  the  value  of  one  dollar  is  issued,  it  is  not 
itself  the  dollar,  for  we  read  on  it  a  promise  to  pay 
that  amount,  and  its  value  rests  on  the  credit  of  the 
Government  making-  the  issue.  In  this  the  Govern 
ment  does  not  differ  from  the  individual.  If  the 
people  have  confidence,  the  promises  of  the  Govern 
ment  pass  at  par.  If  not,  they  fall  below  until,  like 
the  old  Continental  paper,  or  that  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  they  cease  to  possess  any  value  what 
ever. 

It  is,  therefore,  a  popular  delusion  which  tells  us 
that  the  scarcity  or  abundance  of  this  circulating 
medium  affects  prices.  It  is  the  paper  that  is  fluc 
tuating,  and  not  the  products.  We,  accepting  the 
general  belief,  cannot  comprehend  how  it  is  that 
during  our  greatest  depression  in  business  there  is: 
a  heavier  volume  of  currency  out  than  when  trade 
is  active  and  the  times  prosperous.  The  Govern 
ment,  in  its  ordinary  expenditures,  may  issue 
promises  to  pay  as  money,  to  the  fullest  extent, 
without  creating  trade  or  restoring  confidence.  A 
man  may  have  his  coffers  stored  with  gold,  let  alone 
greenbacks,  and  he  will  not  use  five  dollars  to  pur 
chase  a  barrel  of  flour  until  he  can  see  where  that 
barrel  can  be  placed  at  a  profit. 

What  we  mean  by  the  evil  of  a  swollen  or  a 
contracted  currency  is  the  evil  of  an  over-stimulated 
or  depressed  credit.  And  this  power  we  have 
placed  in  the  hands  of  a  few  corporations.  All  our 


116  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

business  is  done  on  credit,  from  the  greenback  of  the 
Government  to  the  book  account  of  the  grocer. 
Now  were  trade  dependent  on  the  actual  wants  of 
the  community,  it  would  be  in  a  measure  stable, 
uniform,  and  safe.  To  stimulate  this  in  a  healthy 
manner  the  natural  greed  of  humanity  is  sufficient. 
But  there  is  such  a  tiling  as  artificial  stimulation, 
and  such  a  thing  as  gambling,  and  herein  lies  the 
evil  of  farming  out  the  credit  of  the  Government 
to  a  few  corporations.  It  is  in  accord  with  their 
selfish  interests  to  stimulate  credit  when  trade  is 
healthy  and  active,  as  it  is  their  safety  to  contract 
when  over-excited  speculation  ends  and  pay-day 
arrives.  Now,  while  a  man  will  not  employ  five 
dollars  in  the  purchase  of  a  barrel  of  flour  until 
satisfied  that  he  can  sell  at  a  profit,  he  may  be 
induced  to  believe  that  a  profit  will  be  found  in  the 
future,  or,  what  is  more  common,  to  make  one  of  a 
combination  which,  controlling  the  market,  can  force 
a  profit. 

It  is  the  duty  of  a  Government  to  give  the  people 
a  circulating  medium,  and  this  to  the  fullest  extent 
of  its  credit.  Mr.  Chase  saw  this  fact,  and  in  it  the 
error  of  his  act  in  creating  the  national  banks,  but 
he  never  could  divest  his  mind  of  the  popular  confu 
sion  about  money  as  a  measure  of  value  and  money 
as  a  circulating  medium.  When  Chief- Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  he  joined  the  majority  in  deciding 
that  notes  of  the  Government  were  not  legal  tenders 
under  our  Constitution.  Whether  unconstitutional 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  117 

or  not,  to  one's  common-sense  the  absurdity  of  the 
conclusion  is  confounding.  What  the  Government 
issues  the  Government  is  bound  to  receive,  and  that 
which  the  Government  deals  in  as  money  is,  of  neces 
sity,  money. 

A  man  of  culture  seldom  fairly  appreciates  the 
mind,  however  strong-,  that  has  not  passed  through 
the  ripening  process  of  educational  training.  This 
fact  stood  between  Chase  and  Lincoln.  The  Secre 
tary  felt,  rather  than  saw,  the  superiority  of  his  Pres 
ident,  and  attributed  the  masterful  control  of  the 
greater  man  to  the  power  of  his  higher  position.  In 
addition  to  this,  Salmon  P.  Chase  was  the  only 
member  of  the  Cabinet  who  was  shocked  at  the  coarse 
humor  of  their  chief.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
had  little  of  this  quality  in  him,  and  the  little  he  pos 
sessed  was  a  refined  sort  quite  foreign  to  the  indeli 
cate,  coarse  wit  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Chase  put  to  record 
the  solemn  fact  that  when  the  Cabinet  was  called 
together  to  consider  the  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
the  President  opened  proceedings  by  reading  to  the 
amazed  Secretaries  nearly  all  of  Artemus  Ward's 
book,  then  just  published.  All  the  Cabinet,  except 
Mr.  Chase,  laughed  loudly  over  Artemus,  and  the 
President,  looking  in  the  face  of  his  solemn  Secreta 
ry,  persisted,  and  with  his  constitutional  advisers, 
laughed  more  boisterously  than  ever. 

The  fact  had  come  to  be  recognized,  by  President 
and  Cabinet,  that  Chase's  disturbed  condition  was  in 
itself  a  source  of  amusement,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  seldom 


118  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

lost  an  opportunity  to  entertain  himself  and  others  in 
this  direction.  Some  of  these  occasions  both  Stanton 
and  Chase  related  to  me,  the  one  in  an  aggrieved 
tone,  and  the  other  between  bursts  of  laughter,  and 
the  reader  may  judge  of  their  sort  when  I  state  that 
scarcely  one  would  bear  printing. 

To  these  small  matters  may  be  attributed  Chase's 
withdrawal  from  the  Cabinet.  The  place  was  not 
only  overladen  with  heavy  responsibility,  but  ren 
dered  irksome  by  the  President's  treatment.  He 
seemed  to  have  no  true  appreciation  of  the  labors 
and  success  of  his  subordinates.  All  that  Chase, 
Stanton,  and  Seward  accomplished  in  their  several 
departments  wras  taken  as  a  matter  of  course,  and 
something  by  no  means  unusual.  He  expended  no 
anxiety  on  the  cares  of  his  own  position,  lost  no  sleep, 
nor  appetite,  nor  flesh  under  the  enormous  weight 
placed  upon  his  shoulders,  and  he  could  not  compre 
hend  why  his  subordinates  should  be  troubled  by  a 
sense  of  responsibility  or  seek  comfort  in  praise. 

Salmon  P.  Chase  has  been  severely  commented  on 
for  what  is  called  his  intriguing  against  his  chief  for 
the  place  of  President.  This  is  unjust.  To  seek  the 
Presidency  is  an  honorable  ambition,  and  Chase  not 
only  felt  under  no  obligation  to  the  man  he  honestly 
believed  he  had  made  a  success,  and  his  ambition  was 
stimulated  by  the  loftiest  patriotism.  He  knew  that 
unless  he  continued  to  hold  command  of  the  system 
of  finance  he  had  introduced  that  system  would 
cause  more  evil  in  time  of  peace  than  it  had  accom- 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  119 

plished  good  in  the  hour  of  war.  And  experience  is 
proving-  the  wisdom  of  his  prophecy.  To-day  the 
Government  is  kept  on  a  war  footing  by  the  very 
measures  Chase  inaugurated  to  end  the  war. 

In  addition  to  this,  our  Secretary  saw  the  evil  of  an 
irresponsible  military  rule,  which  Seward  and  Stan- 
ton,  under  sanction  of  the  President,  had  inau 
gurated.  Chase  never  approved  of  this  arbitrary 
power  in  which  his  associates  delighted,  nay  rioted. 
"  We  are  doing  more  to  destroy  self-government  by 
these  arbitrary  arrests  and  illegal  punishments  in 
the  North  than  the  Confederates  of  the  South  in  their 
attempt  to  wipe  us  out  as  a  nation."  "  Again,"  he 
said,  "  the  evil  of  war  comes  after  the  war,  it  leaves 
an  army  of  cripples,  an  army  of  thieves,  and  an  army 
of  prostitutes.  We  shall  suffer  more  from  West 
Point  than  we  have  suffered  from  the  rebellion.  The 
taste  for  military  glory  will  give  us  a  succession  of 
military  imbeciles  for  rulers." 

Having  succeeded  to  all  that  made  him  eminent 
through  independent  votes  based  on  Democratic  doc 
trines,  Chase  appealed  to  the  Democratic  Party  for 
a  nomination.  He  nearly  succeeded.  A  drunken 
harangue  made  by  an  eminent  Democrat  the  night 
before  the  nomination  lost  him  Ohio  and  just  enough 
votes  to  insure  defeat. 

The  elevation  of  this  troublesome  subordinate  to 
the  position  of  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States  Su 
preme  Court  is  generally  attributed  by  thoughtless 
minds  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  shrewrdness  in  thus  shelving 


120  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

a  dangerous  rival.  I  do  not  concur  in  this.  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  felt  no  fear  of  a  civilian.  He  did  have 
a  wholesome  regard  for  the  military  men  the  war 
had  brought  to  the  front,  and  the  one  man  of  all 
others  he  was  careful  to  keep  from  that  front  was 
the  first  idol  of  the  Free-soil,  afterward  Republican 
Party,  John  C.  Fremont.  He  recognized  in  the 
popular  Pathfinder  a  man  of  genius  who,  to  a 
thoughtful  mind,  added  the  qualities  which  go  to 
make  a  leader  of  men.  He  sent  Chase  from  the 
noisy  arena  of  the  political  world  to  the  solemn 
quiet  of  our  highest  court  with  no  other  thought 
than  that  which  generally  actuated  him  of  finding 
the  fittest  man  for  any  position. 

The  circumstances  attending  the  selection  of  Mr. 
Chase  as  furnished  me  by  the  eminent  jurist  Justice 
Field  were  as  follows  : 

"  In  the  spring  of  1864,"  writes  Mr.  Justice  Field, 
"  Chief  Justice  Taney  was  taken  very  ill,  and 
reported  to  be  dying.  The  prospect  of  a  speedy 
vacancy  in  the  office  of  Chief  Justice  naturally  led  to 
suggestions  as  to  his  probable  successor.  In  the 
previous  year  a  majority  of  the  Justices,  at  the 
instance  of  Mr.  Justice  Davis,  and  through  him  in 
formed  President  Lincoln  that,  in  case  of  a  vacancy 
in  the  office  during  the  recess  of  the  Court,  they 
would  be  pleased  to  see  the  appointment  given  to 
Mr.  Justice  Swayne.  But  at  this  time  (1864)  Mr. 
Justice  Miller  and  I  had  some  conversation  on  the 
subject  of  the  succession,  and  we  both  came  to  the 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  121 

conclusion  that  Secretary  Chase  was  the  proper  man 
for  the  place,  as  he  was  familiar  with  all  the  ques 
tions  out  of  which  had  grown  the  Civil  War,  and 
was  acquainted  with  all  the  legislation  of  Congress 
during  its  progress,  and  with  the  new  revenue  and 
currency  systems  in  particular.  For  these  reasons, 
and  he  also  being  an  eminent  jurist,  and  of  broad 
intellect,  we  considered  his  appointment  to  be  very 
desirable. 

"  We  did  not  make  any  comparison  between  him 
and  Mr.  Justice  Swayne,  for  whose  qualifications 
and  character  we  had  the  highest  appreciation.  Our 
preference  for  Mr.  Chase  was  based  on  the  grounds 
I  have  stated.  On  the  same  day,  while  walking  on 
Penns3rlvania  Avenue  toward  Willard's  Hotel,  I  met 
Mr.  Chase,  and  after  the  ordinary  salutations,  asked 
him  how  he  would  like  to  be  Chief  Justice.  He 
seemed  surprised  at  the  question  and  asked  me  what 
I  meant.  I  replied,  giving  him  the  information  we 
had  of  the  condition  of  Chief  Justice  Taney,  and  the 
probability  that  he  would  not  live  through  the  day, 
and  stating  that  Mr.  Justice  Miller  and  I  had  sug 
gested  his  name  as  the  Chief  Justice's  successor. 
He  replied  that  he  had  not  thought  of  the  position, 
but  he  was  evidently  interested  in  the  suggestion, 
for  he  turned  and  accompanied  me  as  far  as  Willard's 
Hotel.  In  the  course  of  our  conversation  he  asked 
me  if  I  had  consulted  Mr.  Sumner  on  the  subject.  I 
replied  that  I  had  not,  but  that  I  would  see  him 
immediately.  Mr.  Sumner  then  lived  at  the  corner 


122  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

of  F  and  Thirteenth  Streets.  I  went  to  his  room, 
and  there  found  him  at  his  desk  surrounded  by 
papers.  I  told  him  my  object  in  calling-.  He 
replied  : 

"*  I  will  see  the  President  at  once.'  And  he  im 
mediately  rose  from  the  table  and  left  the  house  for 
that  purpose. 

"  Chief  Justice  Taney  recovered  from  his  illness  and 
the  subject  of  his  successor  was,  of  course,  dropped. 
At  the  end  of  the  term  I  called  to  pay  my  respects  to 
him.  I  found  him  exceedingly  feeble,  so  much  so 
that  when  I  gave  him  my  photograph,  which  he  had 
requested,  I  noticed  that  his  sight  had  failed  him, 
and  I  was  pained  by  the  thought  that  I  was  proba 
bly  looking  upon  his  venerable  face  for  the  last  time. 
I  went  immediately  from  his  residence  to  the  White 
House  to  see  the  President.  I  found  him  engaged 
with  Mr.  Holt  and  apparently  absorbed  in  the 
matter  which  wras  the  subject  of  their  consultation. 
I  remarked  that  I  had  called  to  pay  my  respects 
before  leaving  for  California,  and  also  to  say  that,  in 
all  probability,  before  next  term  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  the  duty  would  devolve  upon  him  of  appoint 
ing  a  Chief  Justice,  and  that  I  desired  to  say  a  few 
words  to  him  on  that  subject.  He  then  asked  me  if 
I  could  not  remain  in  the  city  a  day  longer  for  that 
purpose.  I  said  I  could,  and  he  made  an  appoint 
ment  for  me  to  see  him  at  twelve  o'clock  the  next 
day.  At  our  interview,  on  the  following  day,  he 
said,  before  I  mentioned  Mr.  Chase's  name : 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  123 

*<CI  suppose  you  favor  the  appointment  of  Mr. 
Chase  to  the  Chief  Justiceship.' 

"  He  probably  got  that  impression  from  his  inter 
view  with  Mr.  Sunnier,  who  had  doubtless  reported 
to  him  the  conversation  he  had  with  me  about  a 
month  before.  The  President  then  asked  me  how 
the  profession  would  take  the  appointment  of  Mr. 
Chase,  and  said  he  entertained  a  very  high  regard 
for  him.  He  also  remarked  that  there  were  parties 
who  were  endeavoring  to  'put  up  a  bar'  between 
him  and  Mr.  Chase,  but  that  he  would  not  let  them 
do  it.  In  the  course  of  the  conversation  he  asked 
me  how  Mrs.  Sprague  would  like  the  appointment  of 
her  father ;  that  he  had  heard  the  remark  attributed 
to  her  that  her  father  'was  not  to  be  set  aside  by  a 
place  on  the  bench.'  To  that  inquiry  I  made  no 
reply. 

"  The  impression  left  upon  my  mind  from  that  con 
versation  was,  that  he  was  favorably  disposed  to 
Mr.  Chase's  appointment  as  successor  to  Chief  Jus 
tice  Taney. 

"Some  weeks  afterwards  Mr.  Taney  died,  Mr. 
Chase  was  appointed  to  succeed  him,  and  his  appoint 
ment  was  unanimously  confirmed  without  the  usual 
reference  to  a  committee." 

Salmon  P.  Chase  carried  to  his  high  position  on 
the  Supreme  Bench  not  only  a  well-trained  intellect 
of  great  power,  but  one  singularly  well  fitted 
through  the  temperament  that  sustained  and  con 
trolled  it,  for  judicial  duties.  Although  a  partisan 


124  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

through  life,  no  man  could  more  readily  divest  him 
self  of  party  bias,  when  it  became  necessary  to  look, 
as  a  judge,  impartially  upon  both  sides.  In  this  he 
was  greatly  helped  by  his  religious  convictions 
which,  without  creating  a  bigot,  made  every  breath 
he  drew  a  prayer. 

As  one  of  the  leading  minds  of  President  Lincoln's 
powerful  Cabinet  he  had  been,  very  unwillingly  it  is 
true,  a  party  to  much  that  in  the  ways  of  war  did 
violence  to  the  recognized  trusts  of  our  Constitution. 
The  war  power  had  ridden  down  and  nearly  de 
stroyed  all  that  it  had  been  carried  on  to  sustain  and 
perpetuate.  To  divest  his  mind  of  the  passions  en 
gendered  by  such  a  strife,  and  calmly  and  justly 
adjudicate  upon  cases  when  the  late  enemy  was  a 
party  in  Court,  called  for  all  the  higher  powers  of 
his  admirable  mind  and  character.  Fortunately,  as 
I  have  said,  through  all  the  conflict,  he  had  retained, 
in  a  measure,  his  composure  and  religious  sense  of 
right,  so  that  it  was  possible  for  him  to  sit  in 
judgment  where  he  had  once  been  the  partisan. 

The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  is  the 
only  part  of  the  Government  at  Washington  still 
existing  in  all  the  purity  and  strength  with  which 
the  entire  political  structure  was  created  by  the 
fathers.  It  yet  remains  a  perfect  to\ver  amid  the 
ruins  that  time,  war,  and  decay  have  made  its  sur 
roundings.  What  the  fathers  meant,  this  great 
tribunal  tells  with  no  uncertain  sound,  and  to  pre 
side  as  Chief  Justice  of  this  grave  Court,  the  late 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  125 

Secretary  of  a  War  Administration  was  called.  No 
more  trying-  moment  could  have  been  selected  to 
test  the  fairness  and  ability  of  this  eminent  man. 

The  war  of  arms  had  ceased.  The  terrible  con 
flict,  waged  by  men  who  soaked  with  blood  every 
foot  of  ground  they  abandoned,  had  worn  itself  out 
before  overwhelming  numbers,  and,  from  the  ruin 
left,  the  Government  was  called  upon  to  reconstruct 
our  empire.  How  to  accomplish  this  made  a  ques 
tion  with  the  solving  of  which  Secretary  Chase  had 
much  to  do,  and  to  consider  and  decide  many  real 
and  important  matters  of  dispute  he  then  put  on  the 
ermine. 

The  Secretary  Chase  had  said  to  the  writer  of 
this,  that : 

"  If  the  Southern  people  had  fought  in  the  Union 
for  the  Union,  as  the  fathers  gave  it  to  us,  without 
setting  up  an  alien  government  under  an  alien  flag1, 
they  would  have  had  a  better  chance  for  success." 

What  he  meant  by  this  was  that  the  Southern 
people  would  have  had,  in  that  case,  the  active  sym 
pathy  and  support  of  the  Northern  Democracy,  that 
was  thrown  out  and  silenced  by  the  formation  of  the 
alien  government  under  which  the  Confederates 
fought.  Not  only  this,  but  the  Southern  leaders 
swept  from  under  themselves  their  one  ground  of 
excuse  for  armed  resistance. 

The  truth  is  that  Chase  was  a  more  consistent 
and  far  abler  States'  rights  man  than  any  of  the 
Southern  statesmen,  if  we  except  Henry  A.  Wise 


126  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

and  John  Tyler.  He  and  William  H.  Sevvard  as 
governors  of  Ohio  and  New  York,  had  set  up  the 
sovereignty  of  the  State  against  the  aggressions  of 
the  slave  power.  In  addition  to  this  he  belonged  to 
a  class  of  reformers  who  believe  that  when  the  argu 
ment  is  made  the  cause  is  won.  Able  as  such 
advocates  generally  are,  they  fail  to  take  into  ac 
count  that  through  the  ignorance  and  passions  of 
the  multitude  the  argument  is  unheard,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  din  of  a  conflict  in  which  the  voice  of 
reason  is  drowned. 

The  Secretary  was  much  amused  by  a  comment  I 
made  on  old  John  Tyler  and  his  peace  convention, 
then  in  session  at  Washington.  I  said  that  the  ven 
erable  ex- President  reminded  me  of  the  story  told  "of 
the  ol<J  gentleman  who  tried  his  first  vo3Tage  at  sea. 
He  retired  to  his  stateroom,  pulled  on  his  night-cap, 
and  carefully  adjusted  himself  to  repose.  W^hen  the 
vessel'  left  the  smooth  waters  of  the  harbor  and 
began  rolling  upon  the  waves  of  the  ocean  in  some 
thing  of  a  storm,  he  sent  his  man  to  the  captain  to 
request  that  officer  to  stop  the  sailors  from  running 
about,  for  they  shook  the  vessel  so  that  it  made  him 
sick. 

Said  Chase,  on  another  occasion,  long  after  the 
war : 

11  There  was  no  appeal  to  reason  that  would  have 
prevented  the  war,  and  there  was  no  exercise  of 
reason  that  could  save  us  from  the  fatal  conse 
quences.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that,  while  we 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  127 

freed  the  negro,  we  enslaved  ourselves,  and  how 
much  soever  State  sovereignty  may  be  as  you  say 
a  colonial  superstition,  the  rotten  ground-rail  of  a 
Virginia  abstraction,  it  was  the  only  system  upon 
which  the  conflicting  interests  could  be  reconciled, 
and  thereby  the  freedom  of  a  people  spread  over  a 
wide  continent  be  preserved.  This  centralization  of 
power  at  Washington  must  be  checked,  or  the  late 
war  will  prove  the  forerunner  of  many  wars." 

Chase  was  at  the  time  he  uttered  this  a  candidate 
for  nomination  at  the  hands  of  the  Democracy. 

It  seems  strange  that  one  so  imbued  with  the  doc 
trines  of  States'  rights  should  be  the  author  of  re 
construction  as  it  was  enforced  by  the  Government 
at  Washington  upon  the  people  so  lately  in  revolt. 
I  am  not  certain  as  to  his  authorship  of  that  scheme. 
I  first  heard  it  stated  on  the  floor  of  the  House  by 
the  Hon.  Samuel  Shellaberger,  of  Ohio,  and  I  am 
under  the  impression  that  the  entire  project  found 
birth  in  the  fertile  brain  of  that  distinguished  repre 
sentative.  The  process  of  reasoning  that  brought 
both  Chase  and  Seward  to  the  position  they  held  at 
the  close  of  the  war  was  clear  and  conclusive.  It 
taught  that  the  old  thirteen  States  having  entered 
the  Union  were  bound  by  the  legitimate  results  of 
such  act.  When,  therefore,  new  territory  was  added 
by  purchase  and  conquest,  and  States  were  called 
into  existence  by  the  Government  at  Washington, 
very  much  as  a  State  creates  new  counties,  they  were 
impressed  with  a  character  that  bound  the  old  thir- 


128  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

teen  to  something1  more  than  the  first  compact  called 
for.  It  was  very  much  as  if  the  Siamese  twins  had 
agreed  to  the  ligature  that  bound  them  together, 
and  then  found  that  a  severance  would  prove  the 
death  of  one  or  both.  Of  course  each  was  bound 
to  fight  for  that  which  was  self  -  preservation. 
When,  therefore,  the  Southern  States  abandoned 
their  rights  as  States  of  the  Union,  and  set  up  a 
foreign  Government,  they  shifted  their  ground,  how 
ever  untenable,  to  one  that  depended  altogether  upon 
their  power  to  maintain  themselves  by  force  of  arms. 
Having  defeated  them  in  this  there  was  but  one 
course  open  to  the  Government,  and  that  was  to 
treat  them  as  territories,  and  for  Congress  to  recon 
struct  the  South  precisely  as  States  had  been  made 
from  the  Louisiana  purchase,  or  California  conquest. 
The  conclusions  reached  by  the  Chief  Justice  and 
afterwards  embodied  with  some  emendations,  ap 
pears  in  a  letter  written  by  him  to  Mr.  Justice  Field, 
which  I  copy  as  follows  : 

WASHINGTON,  April  30,  1886. 

MY  DEAR  JUDGE  :  It  grieved  me  very  much  to  hear  from 
your  brother,  Mr.  Cyrus  W.  Field,  that  you  have  been  quite 
ill.  I  supposed  that  you  were  now  in  or  very  near  California. 
You  must  take  the  best  care  of  yourself,  not  only  for  the  sake 
of  your  family  but  of  your  country,  which  now  needs  true 
patriotism  as  well  as  legal  learning  upon  the  bench.  I  feel  all 
the  interest  of  a  warm  personal  friendship  in  your  welfare. 
It  is  not  in  my  nature  to  forget  friends  eve*"-  when  serious 
differences  of  judgment  and  political  affii  ities  come  in  to 
make  separation  ;  and  no  such  differences  come  between  us. 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  129 

Do  you  remember  when,  just  before  the  end  of  the  term  in 
the  spring  of  1864,  you  met  me  on  the  avenue,  and  expressed 
your  warm  wish  that  I  might  fill  the  place  I  now  occupy  ?  If 
you  have  forgotten  it,  I  have  not,  nor  shall  I  ever  forget  it. 
It  took  me  by  surprise,  but  was  very  grateful  to  my  feelings. 
What  do  you  think  of  the  plan  of  reconstruction,  or  rather 
of  completing  reconstruction,  presented  by  the  Committee  of 
Fifteen  ?  To  me  it  seems  all  very  well,  provided  it  can  be 
carried ;  but  I  am  afraid  it  is,  as  people  say,  rather  too  big  a 
contract.  So  far  as  I  have  had  opportunity  of  conversing 
with  Senators  and  Representatives,  I  have  recommended  to 
confine  constitutional  amendments  to  two  points :  (1)  No 
payment  of  rebel  debt  and  no  payment  for  slaves  ;  (2)  No  rep 
resentation  beyond  the  constitutional  basis.  And,  as  so  many 
are  trying  their  heads  at  form,  I  drew  up  these  two  amend 
ments  according  to  my  ideas,  as  follows  : 

ARTICLE  14. — Section  1.  Representatives  shall  be  appor 
tioned  among  the  several  States  according  to  their  respective 
numbers  ;  but  whenever  in  any  State  the  elective  franchise 
shall  be  denied  to  any  of  its  inhabitants,  being  male  citizens  of 
the  United  States,  and  above  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  for 
any  cause  except  insurrection  or  rebellion  against  the  United 
States,  the  basis  of  representation  in  such  State  shall  be 
reduced,  in  the  proportion  which  the  number  of  male  citizens 
so  excluded  shall  bear  to  the  whole  number  of  male  citizens 
over  twenty-one  years  of  age. 

Section  2.  No  payment  shall  ever  be  made  by  the  United 
States  for  or  on  account  of  any  debt  contracted  or  incurred  in 
aid  of  insurrection  or  rebellion  against  the  United  States  ;  or 
for  or  on  account  of  the  emancipation  of  slaves. 

And  I  proposed  farther  that  the  submission  of  this  article  to 
the  States  should  be  accompanied  by  a  concurrent  resolution 
to  this  effect : 

"  That  whenever  any  of  the  States  which  are  declared  to  be 
in  insurrection  and  rebellion  by  the  proclamation  of  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  dated  July  1,  1862,  shall  have  rati 
fied  the  foregoing  article,  Senators  and  Representatives  from 
such  ratifying  State  or  States  ought  to  be  admitted  to  seats  in 
the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  respectively,  in  the 


130  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

like  manner  as  for  States  never  declared  to  be  in  insurrection  ; 
and  that,  whenever  the  said  article  shall  have  been  ratified  by 
three-quarters  of  the  several  States,  Senators  and  Representa 
tives  ought  in  like  manner  to  be  admitted  from  all  the  States." 

It  has  really  seemed  to  me  that  on  this  basis  the  completion 
of  reorganization  by  the  admission  of  members  in  both  Houses 
of  Congress  would  be  safe ;  and  I  have  greatly  doubted  the 
expediency  of  going  beyond  this.  In  two  other  important 
respects  the  report  of  the  committee  does  go  be}rond  this  :  (1) 
Prohibiting  the  States  from  interfering  with  the  rights  of 
citizens  ;  (2)  Disfranchising  all  persons  voluntarily  engaged  in 
rebellion  until  1870 ;  and  (3)  In  granting  express  legislative 
power  to  Congress  to  enforce  all  the  new  constitutional  pro 
visions.  Will  not  these  propositions  be  received  with  some 
alarm  by  those  who,  though  opponents  of  secession  or  nulli 
fication,  yet  regard  the  real  rights  of  the  States  as  essential  to 
proper  working  of  our  complex  system  ?  I  do  not  myself 
think  that  any  of  the  proposed  amendments  will  be  likely  to 
have  injurious  effects,  unless  it  be  the  sweep  of  disfranchise- 
ment;  but  I  repeat,  that  I  fear  the  recommendation  of  too 
much  ;  and,  I  add,  that  it  seems  to  me  that  nothing  is  gained 
sufficiently  important  and  sustainable  by  legislation  to  warrant 
our  friends  in  overloading  the  ship  with  amendment  freight. 

But  this  letter  is  too  long.  Pardon  and  answer.  Have  you 
read  the  opinion  and  the  dissent  in  the  Bank  case? 

Yours  cordially,  S.  P.  CHASE. 

The  real  biographer  of  this  great  man  will  regret 
that  the  subject  was  ever  called  to  other  duty  than 
that  which  he  last  adorned.  Salmon  P.  Chase  had, 
to  an  eminent  degree,  a  judicial  mind  and  tempera 
ment.  He  heard  with  patience  and  judged  with  im 
partiality  the  testimony  of  all  sides,  and,  to  a  quick 
appreciation  of  the  truth,  he  added  the  highest  cour- 


Salmon  P.  Chase.  131 

age  to  judge  and  determine.  He  found  the  silk  robes 
of  this  high  office  only  after  the  care  which  kills  had 
sapped  the  most  precious  vitality  of  his  perfect 
physique.  What  he  might  have  done  as  a  jurist  in 
his  prime  may  be  learned  from  what  he.  accomplished 
as  Chief  Justice  in  his  decline.  His  stay  upon  the 
bench  was  brief,  but  long  enough  for  his  fame. 

No  account  of  Salmon  P.  Chase  is  complete  with 
out  reference  to  his  domestic  life.  It  made,  if  not 
the  larger,  certainly  the  more  important  and  more 
graceful  part.  Married  thrice,  he  lost,  in  each  in 
stance,  soon  after  marriage,  the  fair  women  he  had 
selected,  and,  tenderly  devoted  to  his  household,  he 
lived  to  be  both  father  and  mother  to  the  two  charm 
ing  girls  in  whose  sunny  presence  he  seemed  to 
garner  all  the  peace  and  comfort  he  possessed  on 
earth.  No  one  can  remember  him,  who  knew  him  at 
all,  separate  and  apart  from  the  daughter  who, 
inheriting  his  intellect  and  force  of  character,  added 
the  charm  of  tact  and  womanly  beauty  that  made 
his  home  a  salon,  where  the  gracious  being,  princely 
in  her  deportment  and  popular  in  her  sweet  conde 
scension,  wielded  an  influence  strange  to  this  coarse 
American  world  of  ours.  This  lovely  and  accom 
plished  woman  lived  in  her  father,  sharing  alike  his 
cares  and  his  ambitions.  She  seemed  to  die  in  his 
death,  for  her  brilliant  career  clouded  into  trouble  and 
shameful  calumny  from  the  date  of  his  funeral,  so  that 
the  sad  event  is  doubly  sorrowful,  and  on  the  monu 
ment  to  his  memory  we  may  write  a  double  epitaph. 


WILLIAM   H.   SEWARD. 

IT  was  on  my  first  visit  to  the  National  Capitol 
that,  sitting  in  the  gallery  of  the  old  Senate  Cham 
ber,  I  had  pointed  out  to  me  by  a  friendly  member 
of  the  House  the  famous  political  leaders  of  that 
day.  The  Senate  was  not  then,  as  now,  mainly  made 
up  of  merely  rich  men.  They  were  indeed  mostly  poor 
in  purse,  but  rich  in  intellect.  I  saw  Clay,  Cass, 
Douglas,  Benton,  and  others,  about  whose  names  our 
history  clusters  as  light  about  the  stars. 

We  had  about  exhausted  the  list  of  celebrities 
when  a  slender,  hook-nosed,  gray-eyed,  homely  man 
rose  to  address  the  Senate  from  the  outer  circle  of 
the  chamber.  His  voice  was  harsh  and  unpleasant, 
and  his  manner  extremely  angular  and  awkward. 
1  made  a  move  to  leave,  when  my  friend  from  the 
House  caught  me  by  the  arm  and  said,  "Don't  go, 
that  is  Seward  of  New  York."  I  had  no  particular 
interest  in  Seward  of  New  York,  but  fortunately 
obeyed  my  friend.  I  at  once  observed  that  he  com 
manded  the  attention  of  the  Senate.  One  and  all 
ceased  reading,  writing,  and  conversation,  and  turned 
toward  the  speaker.  I  saw  Douglas  look  with  inter 
est,  and  Clay  Avith  an  expression  of  contempt.  From 


WILLIAM  H.    SEWARD. 


William  H.  Seivard.  133 

these,  however,  I  turned  to  regard  the  orator.  For 
a  few  moments  he  stood  by  his  desk,  whirling-  a  pair 
of  glasses  in  his  hand,  and  then  stepped  back  and 
leaned  upon  the  railing  immediately  in  the  rear  of 
his  seat.  He  clasped  his  arm  about  the  pillar, 
and  with  the  other  hand  grasping  the  rail,  half 
braced  and  half  leaning,  held  his  awkward  position 
throughout  nearly  the  entire  hour  of  his  speech.  He 
had  not  spoken  ten  minutes  before  a  startling  proposi 
tion  sent  a  sensation,  expressed  in  a  murmur  and  a 
motion,  over  the  entire  Senate.  I  soon  lost  all  sense 
of  his  awkward  pose  and  harsh  voice  in  the  subject- 
matter  of  his  discourse,  it  was  so  original,  startling, 
quaint,  and,  at  times,  truly  eloquent.  In  common 
with  the  listening  Senate  I  sat  spell-bound,  and  when 
he  ended  amid  a  general  murmur  of  disapprobation, 
I  could  scarcely  realize  that  he  had  occupied  an  hour 
and  a  quarter.  Expressing  wrarm  admiration,  my 
friend  offered  me  an  introduction  to  the  orator. 

The  New  York  Senator  received  us  affably.  He 
seemed  much  amused  and  gratified  at  my  frank 
avowal  of  admiration,  and  ended  the  short  interview 
by  inviting  us  to  dinner  on  the  following  Sunday. 

I  found  the  statesman  living  as  becomes  a  Sena 
tor.  He  had  a  furnished  house  to  himself,  and  it 
was  a  handsome  house  handsomely  furnished.  This 
was  unusual  at  that  time.  Washington  City  was  a 
Southern  town,  and  while  the  Government  built 
costly  edifices  for  its  use,  the  inhabitants  and  polit 
ical  representatives  made  little  or  no  display.  While 


134  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

• 

the  South  made  all  the  money  the  country  enjoyed, 
it  retained  very  little  for  social  comfort  or  display, 
or,  indeed,  for  any  purpose  except  gambling.  The 
gambling-  resorts  made  as  much  of  a  feature  at  the 
National  Capital  as  they  did  at  Baden-Baden  of  that 
day,  or  at  Monaco  of  this.  The  political  representa 
tives  lived  as  they  pleased,  or  as  their  pockets  per 
mitted,  generally  at  hotels  or  boarding-houses.  The 
few  wealthy  men  among  them  expended  their  money 
in  the  summer  time  at  Saratoga.  There  was  no 
public  opinion  brought  to  bear  to  restrain  them  from 
any  sort  of  life  in  which  they  might  choose  to  in 
dulge  at  the  National  Capital.  General  Cass,  for 
example,  a  wealthy  man,  had  rooms  in  a  building  on 
the  avenue  that  wicked  correspondents  said  had 
prostitutes  up-stairs  and  negroes  in  the  cellar. 
This,  however,  was  not  put  to  print,  for'  correspond 
ents  were  few  and  timid.  The  fact  is,  Washington 
City  belonged  to  the  Government,  and  at  that  time 
subordinated  the  newspapers  as  much  as  the  news 
papers  now  subordinate  Washington.  In  those 
days,  if  an  enterprising  journalist  ventured  to  criti 
cise  a  public  man,  a  public  man  armed  with  a  club 
would  appear  next  day  in  the  gallery.  Nowadays, 
if  a  representative  is  too  severely  criticised  he  invites 
his  critic  to  a  little  supper  at  John  Chamberlin's, 
and  explains  things  over  a  bottle  of  wine.  The  bold 
Ben.  Butler  once  remarked  on  the  floor  of  the  House 
that  if  a  newspaper  man  pointed  his  finger  at  a 
member  the  member  ran  into  a  hole.  Mere  wealth 


William  H.  Seivard.  135 

in  those  earlier  days  was  laughed  at,  and  well  it 
might  be.  Washington  City  was  a  mud-hole  in 
winter,  and  a  cloud  of  dust  in  summer.  Hacks 
stalled  in  the  mire  in  the  main  avenue  at  one  season, 
while  at  the  other  pulverized  continents  were  whirled 
to  and  fro  on  every  square  by  turbulent  winds.  „ 
The  one  man,  and  no  other,  Alec.  Shepherd,  had  not 
come  to  change  this  unloved  capital,  as  if  by  magic, 
through  an  expenditure  of  twenty  millions,  into  the 
most  beautiful  city  on  the  continent. 

I  was  surprised  and  delighted,  therefore,  to  find 
my  new  admiration  surrounded  by  such  luxury  as 
his  house  presented.  A  good-looking  mulatto  boy 
opened  the  door,  in  answer  to  our  ring,  and  we  were 
at  once  ushered  into  the  library,  where  we  found  Mr. 
Seward  in  a  much-faded  silk  gown  and  old  slippers, 
busily  at  work,  assisted  by  two  clerks.  He  received 
us  cordially,  but  did  not  suspend  his  labor.  He 
talked  and  wrote  at  the  same  time  until  dinner  was 
announced.  Without  changing  gowrn  or  slippers,  he 
led  the  way,  followed  by  his  guests  and  clerks  and 
proceeded  at  once  to  the  business  of  dining.  His 
family  w^as  not  witli  him,  so  he  took  liberties  with 
the  meal  that  had  in  it  all  the  ceremony  to  which  the 
servants  were  accustomed. 

Later  in  life  I  should  have  found  Mr.   Seward  a 
charming  conversationalist.     Then,  however,  I  was 
at  the  period  of  life  wrhen  a  man  carries  relics  in  his y 
mind,  and    is    apt   to   be  tremendously  in  earnest. 
Mr.  Seward   was   good-naturedly  cynical.     I   was 


136  '  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

shocked  at  the  absence  of  seriousness,  and  swung 
over  to  a  painful  belief  that  my  great  man  had  no 
convictions,  or  rather  no  principles.  He  laughed 
at  what  I  held  sacred.  I  ventured  to  remark,  for 
example,  that  his  appeal  to  a  higher  law  had  caused 
great  excitement. 

"Ik  was  an  imprudent  speech,"  he  said  in  reply, 
"and  I  ought  to  have  been  more  careful." 

"  Not,"  I  said,  "  if  you  believe  it." 

"My  young  friend,"  he  said,  "we  are  warned  to 
keep  to  ourselves  what  we  do  not  believe.  It  is  as 
well,  frequently,  to  conceal  what  we  do  believe. 
There  is  apt  to  be  public  damnation  in  both.  We 
are  all  bound  by  tradition  to  the  tail  end  of  a  paper 
kite  called  a  Constitution.  It  is  held  up  by  a  string 
that,  one  of  these  days,  a  wind,  a  little  stronger  than 
usual,  will  break,  and  then  we  shall  all  tumble." 

I  had  been  born  and  brought  up  to  a  belief  in  the 
Constitution  that  was  second  in  sacred  earnestness 
only  to  my  belief  in  the  truths  of  Holy  Writ. 

"Why,  Mr.  Senator,"  I  said  in  some  heat,  "you 
certainly  do  not  believe  that  of  our  Constitu 
tion?" 

"  I  certainly  do,"  he  replied,  "  but  I  generally 
keep  it  to  myself.  A  written  Constitution  is  a 
superstition  that  presupposes  certain  impossibilities. 
The  first  is  that  it  can  express  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
past,  and  anticipate  all  the  wants  of  the  future.  It 
supposes  that  its  creators  were  both  saints  and  sages. 
We  have  had  those  two  classes,  but  never  the  two 


William  H.  Setvard.  137 

qualities  united  in  one  class.  The  saints  were  not 
sages,  and  the  sages  were  not  saints." 

I  broke  into  a  hot  defence  of  the  sacred  instrument, 
to  which  he  listened  very  politely,  and,  when  I  ended, 
said  abruptly  : 

"  That  is  in  your  blood ;  you  are  a  Huguenot  by 
descent,  and  all  your  opinions  are  convictions.  I 
knew  a  relation  of  yours,  once,  John  H.  Piatt.  He 
gave  a  large  fortune  to  the  support  of  the  Govern 
ment,  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  in  consequence  died 
in  prison,  where  he  was  held  for  debt.  You  see  your 
uncle  was  a  patriotic  saint,  but  he  was  not  a  sage  ; 
however,"  he  added,  "we  will  not  let  loose  our 
opinions,  for  nothing  makes  a  devotee  so  mad  as  to 
pull  the  stuffing  out  of  his  god,  and  we  never  can 
succeed  by  making  people  mad." 

In  my  youthful  impetuosity,  I  forced  the  cynical 
Senator  back  to  a  consideration  of  the,  then  to  me, 
sacred  Constitution.  With  some  signs  of  slight 
irritation,  he  said,  and  his  words  proved  so  strangely 
prophetic  that  the  slight  impression  made  then  has 
since  deepened  into  wonder  : 

"This  Constitution  is  to  us  at  the  North  a  great 
danger.  While  we  are  devoting  ourselves  to  it  as  a 
sacred  ark  of  covenant  we  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
the  Southerners  are  using  it  as  a  shield  to  cover  their 
wicked  designs.  They  are  laying  the  foundation  for 
a  Southern  Empire.  It  is  their  policy  to  use  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  in  an  acquisition  of 
Cuba,  and  they  will  stretch  that  Constitution  to  its 


138  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

furthest  limit  for  the  extension  of  slave  territory. 
When  these  thing's  are  done  it  will  be  good-by 
Union,  and  we  can  hold  them  to  their  allegiance  by 
no  appeal  to  that  sacred  instrument,  but  only  by  an 
appeal  to  arms." 

These  opinions,  specimens  of  which  cling-  to  my 
memory,  gave  me  a  distaste  for  my  new  found 
admiration.  This  was  subsequently  increased  by 
the  discovery  that  his  opposition  to  slavery  was 
based  entirely  upon  his  intellectual  processes,  and 
not  upon  his  heart.  He  had  no  pit}r  for  the  slave, 
and  no  dislike  for  the  master.  Indeed,  he  was  a 
great  favorite  with  the  last  named.  He  had  con 
tempt  for  them,  however,  which  he  concealed  as 
carefully  as  he  did  his  contempt  for  the  Constitution. 
He  began  life  as  a  school-teacher  at  the  South,  and 
had  been  treated  with  a  condescending  indifference 
by  the  unenlightened  masters,  the  memory  of  which 
clung  to  him  through  life.  He  really  looked  down 
upon  them  in  the  same  cynical  way  that  he  did  upon 
their  slaves.  I  wondered  then  that  so  able  a  man, 
such  a  profound  student  and  clear- thinking  philoso 
pher  should,  with  these  cynical  ways,  have  such  a 
large  popular  following.  I  learned  afterward  that 
I  had  seen  only  half  the  man  ;  the  other  half  was  the 
intriguing,  popular,  successful  man  of  affairs,  Thur- 
low  Weed.  How  these  two  dissimilar  characters 
came  to  be  united  illustrates  the  real  greatness  of 
William  H.  Seward.  Such  unions  of  unlike  qual 
ities  in  two  men,  joined  as  one,  have  been  and 


William  H.  Seward.  139 

are  known  in  France,  but  nowhere  else.  Indeed,  so 
far  as  we  are  concerned,  there  has  been  no  second 
William  H.  Seward,  and  no  reproduction  of  Thurlow 
Weed. 

William  H.  Seward  had  all  the  higher  qualities  of 
statesmanship.  Of  a  delicacy  of  temperament  that 
indicated  genius,  he  possessed  a  mind  of  rare  pow 
er,  which  he  filled  with  vast  stores  of  information 
through  patient  and  impartial  study.  His  mind  was 
singularly  suggestive,  and  sustained  by  a  courage 
and  industry  that  moulded  these  suggestions  into 
measures  of  legislation  highly  beneficial  to  the  peo 
ple  he  served. 

Our  land  is  prolific  of  politicians,  and  strangely 
barren  of  statesmen.  The  difference  between  the 
two  classes  is  strongly  marked.  The  politician  fol 
lows,  the  statesman  leads.  The  one  is  the  guide, 
philosopher,  and  friend  of  humanity.  The  other  is 
the  servant.  The  fact  that  we  have  our  Government 
reduced  to  writing  in  a  few  simple  rules  makes  it  easy 
for  a  common  man  to  aid  in  its  administration.  If 
he  is  careful  to  study  the  passions  and  prejudices  of 
his  fellow-citizens,  and  to  always  utter  with  intense 
solemnity  the  platitudes  of  popular  truths,  he  can 
claim  any  office,  and  so  serve  his  constituents  as  to 
live  beloved  and  die  lamented. 

With  the  statesman  the  task  is  more  difficult.  He 
must  not  lead  so  far  in  advance  as  to  be  lost  sight 
of,  nor  lead  too  directly  in  the  direction  of  which  the 
popular  mind  may  not  approve.  The  man  of  all  time 


140  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

who  combined  the  cunning-  shrewdness  of  the  politician 
with  the  powers  of  statesmanship  was  Abraham 
Lincoln.  As  President  controlling-  Stanton  and 
Chase,  he  made  these  eminent  men  popularly  success 
ful,  and  the  only  great  man  in  his  Cabinet  who  could 
win  without  his  aid  was  Mr.  Seward.  This  eminent 
diplomat  seemed  to  have  recognized  his  own  defects 
that  stood  in  the  way  to  popularity  at  an  early  day, 
and  remedied  these  by  making  Thurlow  Weed  a  part 
of  himself. 

No  life  of  Seward  is  complete  without  including-  the 
bad  side  of  the  statesman.  Born  and  bred  in  New 
York,  Thurlow  Weed  inhaled  from  his  earliest  youth 
the  atmosphere  of  political  intrigue  that  famous 
leaders,  such  as  Hamilton  and  Burr,  had  developed 
there  hi  advance  of  all  other  parts  of  the  United 
States.  The  governing-  element  that  exists  in  the 
masses  under  a  republic  was  first  felt  and  utilized  in 
that  prosperous  State,  and  at  an  early  day  politicians 
put  in  practice  the  Jeffersonian  doctrines  that  were 
only  theory  in  Virginia,  where  they  had  birth. 

Thurlow  Weed,  a  man  of  no  learning  but  of  keen 
instincts,  had  a  knowledge  of  human  nature,  made 
perfect  through  its  low  but  correct  estimate  of  aver 
age  humanity.  The  student  of  books,  who  learns  to 
attribute  intellectual  motives  to  human  action,  in 
stead  of  learning-  the  currents  that  sway  through  the 
impulses  of  passion,  of  which  impulses  ignorant  preju 
dice  is  the  most  potent,  finds  himself  alone  and  at  a 
loss  when  dealing  with  the  masses.  History,  which 


William  II.  Seicard.  141 


is  made  up  of  the  stories  of  dead  kings  and  famous 
captains,  is  to  such  student  a  snare  and  a  delusion. 
Nor  is  this  remedied  by  a  study  of  literature,  where 
a  motive  is  assigned  to  every  act  for  dramatic  effect. 
If  the  delver  in  libraries  would  pause  to  consider 
himself,  and  learn  from  such  study  how  much  of  his 
own  life  was  made  up  of  impulse,  that  had  no  origin 
in  reason,  and  how  far  moulded  by  influences  over 
which  he  had  no  control,  he  would  have  a  light 
thrown  upon  his  studies  not  to  be  obtained  from  other 
sources. 

William  H.  Seward  seemed  to  realize  this  when  he 
allied  himself  to  Thurlow  Weed,  and  the  cunning, 
unscrupulous  leader  of  men  readily  accepted  the 
advantages  offered  him  through  a  partnership 
with  genius  and  learning.  That  man  is  great  who 
can  use  the  brains  of  others  to  carry  on  his  work. 
The  leader  who  finds  himself  swamped  in  details 
had  better  throw  up  his  leadership,  for  he  has  under 
taken  the  impossible.  No  event  in  Seward's  career 
shows  such  ability  as  this  life-long  partnership  with 
Weed.  He  turned  over  to  his  subordinate  the  work 
he  could  not  do,  and  it  proved  the  work  that  built 
his  pedestal,  and  gave  him  the  power  that  comes 
through  official  position. 

Political  life  to  an  American  citizen  has  all  the 
fanaticism  of  religion  and  all  the  fascination  of 
gambling.  At  that  early  day  politics  had  not  yet 
crystallized  into  two  hostile  camps  that  differ  from 
each  other  only  in  name  and  the  possession  of  the 


142  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

offices,  and  the  first  popular  impulse  seized  on  by 
Weed  was  that  which  made  war  on  the  Masons. 

One  looks  back  in  wonder  at  a  deadly  antagonism 
to  a  secret  order  which  had  given  proof  of  its  purity 
and  bond  for  its  good  behavior  in  the  many  great 
and  good  men,  from  Washington  down,  who  had 
prided  themselves  on  being  members.  But  such  war 
against  the  order  was  a  fact,  and  on  that  war  Seward 
rode  into  power.  Weed  availed  himself  of  that 
popular  prejudice,  although  one  can  well  see  that 
had  Masonry  been  the  selfish,  wicked  organization 
claimed,  Weed  himself  would  have  seized  on  it  to 
further  his  own  questionable  ends,  and  appeared 
before  the  world  as  an  honored  and  accepted  Mason. 

An  event,  difficult  now  to  comprehend,  or  explain, 
occurred  about  that  time  to  give  venom  and  force  to 
the  attacks  on  the  order.  A  renegade  Mason  pub 
lished  a  book  purporting  to  give  the  secrets  and 
ceremonies  of  this  ancient  body.  Shortly  after  this 
publication  the  author,  Morgan,  disappeared  from 
earth.  It  was  claimed  that  he  had  been  kidnapped 
and  murdered  by  Masons,  and  wrath  and  horror  drove 
the  populace  insane.  To  avow  one's  self  a  Mason  then 
was  to  imperil  one's  life.  All  New  York  seemed  to 
resolve  itself  into  a  detective  corps,  and  details  were 
developed  that  added  fuel  to  the  fire  already  kindled 
in  the  excited  popular  mind.  The  body  of  a  man  in 
a  state  of  unrecognizable  decay,  and  which  was  be 
lieved  to  be  that  of  the  perjured  Morgan,  was  fished 
from  the  lake.  Weed  and  his  followers  accepted  the 


William  H.  Seward.  143 

find,  and  it  was  said  of  him  that  he  remarked,  when 
told  that  the  body  could  not  be  that  of  Morgan,  "  It 
is  a  good  enough  Morgan  to  serve  until  after  the 
election."  Weed  died  denying  this,  and  his  denial 
will  be  accepted  by  the  more  thoughtful.  While 
true  to  reputation,  it  was  not  true  to  fact.  Weed  was 
too  cunning,  too  cautious,  to  be  guilty  of  any  such 
indiscretion.  He  was  not  one  of  those  weak  charac 
ters,  naturally  good,  who  seek  to  appear  clever  by 
seeming  bad.  He  posed  through  life  as  a  man  of 
lofty  virtue.  Perhaps  he  deceived  himself  in  this,  and 
really  believed  that  while  he  was  not  a  perfect  exam 
ple  of  goodness,  he  was  far  better  than  the  average 
man.  This  is  not  uncommon  with  such  actors,  and 
some  deceive  the  world ;  the  majority  only  succeed 
in  deceiving  themselves. 

That  war  on  Masonry  is  now  recognized  as  a  fool's 
fight.  Morgan's  book,  that  sold  through  so  many 
editions  as  a  revelation,  now  convinces  a  man  not  a 
member  of  the  order  that  either  Masons  have  no 
secrets  of  sufficient  importance  to  justify  killing  in 
case  of  betrayal,  or  that  the  book  is  a  lie,  for  Morgan 
fails  to  give  the  awful  secret  of  the  ancient  order. 
One  reads  in  amusement  the  so-called  revelation,  that 
goes  on  like  a  tread-mill  from  page  to  page  in  weary 
labor  to  the  end  without  getting  the  reader  up  to  or 
within  the  hidden  horror. 

Seward  seems  to  have  taken  no  note  of  Weed's 
means,  but  accepted  the  results  without  question. 
These  means  made  our  statesman  Governor  of  New 


144  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

York,  Senator,  a  prominent  candidate  for  a  presiden 
tial  nomination,  and,  eventually,  Secretary  of  State. 

How  far  the  able  diplomat  was  conscious  of  his 
other  half's  wrong-doing  it  is  difficult  to  ascertain. 
One  unacquainted  with  the  facts  reading-  Weed's 
memoirs  will  close  the  book  impressed  with  the  belief 
that,  as  between  Seward  and  Weed,  the  last  named 
was  the  more  virtuous  of  the  two.  The  same  cun 
ning  duplicity  may  have  deceived  Seward.  One 
doubts  this.  The  diplomatic  statesman  of  the  war 
was  too  great  a  man  to  be  thus  defrauded. 

How  unscrupulous  Weed  was  in  all  financial  affairs 
the  writer  of  this  has  reason  to  remember.  He  took 
part  in  that  opening  disaster  of  the  war  known  as 
the  First  Bull  Run.  He  is  cognizant  of  a  fact  that 
goes  far  to  account  for  our  defeat,  and  which  seems 
to  have  escaped  the  notice  of  our  war  historians. 
That  fact  is  that  defective  arms  were  put  in  the  hands 
of  the  poor  fellows  who  so  bravely  marched  out  to  a 
cruel  slaughter. 

WThen  the  war  burst  so  unexpectedly  upon  the 
Government  at  Washington,  to  arm  and  equip  even 
seventy-five  thousand  men  made  a  problem  difficult 
of  solution.  It  takes  time  to  manufacture  guns,  and 
this  necessary  time  our  authorities  could  not  com 
mand.  It  was  sought  to  purchase  in  Europe,  and,  as 
a  consequence,  we  marched  from  camp  at  Centreville 
to  find  and  whip  the  enemy  armed,  mainly,  with 
muskets  bought  abroad.  Our  gallant  men  found 
locks  breaking  and  barrels  bursting  with  far  more 


William  H.  Seward.  145 

danger  to  themselves  than  to  the  enemy  we  assailed. 
I  remember  that  at  the  assault  at  Blackburn's  Ford 
George  Wilkes  and,  I  believe,  General  Baird  or 
General  Fry,  I  forget  which,  assisted  by  others, 
rallied  a  number  of  the  stragglers  from  the  fight  as 
they  poured  along  the  road  to  the  rear.  One  of  the 
gallant  West  Pointers  remonstrated  with  the  retreat 
ing  volunteers.  "  Well,  give  us  guns  we  can  shoot, 
and  we'll  fight,"  said  one  of  the  men. 

An  impromptu  inspection  followed,  and  out  of 
twenty  muskets  only  one  was  found  in  a  serviceable 
condition.  These  were  Belgian  muskets,  purchased, 
it  was  said,  through  the  agency  of  Weed  and  Sand- 
ford,  and  were  condemned  guns  bought  of  the  con 
tractor,  after  condemnation,  by  our  patriotic  agents. 

Now  I  know,  as  the  entire  army  knew,  that  these 
pot-metal  semblances  of  guns  were  utterly  worth 
less.  Whether  the  story  then  told,  and  generally 
believed,  that  they  came  through  the  agency  of 
Weed  and  Sandford  is  true,  I  do  not  know,  but  it  is 
not  too  late  to  investigate.  Weed  is  dead,  but  Simon 
Cameron,  then  Secretary  of  War,  and  Henry  Sand- 
ford  are  yet  alive.  It  behooves  them,  at  least,  to 
make  denial. 

This  is  a  serious  charge,  and  I  must  not  be  consid 
ered  its  author.  It  was  made  on  the  field  of  battle 
by  men  with  the  worthless  arms  in  their  hands, 
by  the  side  of  the  dead  and  dying.  It  is  hard 
to  believe  that,  in  the  hour  of  deadly  peril  to  the 
nation,  the  brave  fellows  who  volunteered  to  fight 


146  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

were  made  the  victims  of  a  treachery  that  dis 
counts  treason,  in  its  greed  for  money  stained  with 
the  heart's  blood  of  the  patriots  called  to  the  front. 
Camp-followTers  rob  the  dead,  and,  it  is  said,  some 
times  murder  the  wounded.  These  are  fiends  in  hu 
man  shape,  but  they  are  saints  by  the  side  of  the 
cold-blooded,  selfish  scoundrels,  who,  with  the  roar 
of  the  deadly  strife  sounding-  in  their  ears,  swindled 
the  Government  through  spoiled  food,  rotten  shoddy, 
and  useless  arms  for  the  men  who  tendered  their 
lives  in  behalf  of  their  flag  and  country. 

Should  an  investigation  be  had,  I  have  but  one  fact 
to  offer,  and  that  is  one  well  known  to  the  survivors 
of  the  First  Bull  Run,  that  we  lost  the  battle  mainly 
through  worthless  muskets.  Who  purchased  the 
condemned  guns,  and  who  pocketed  the  tainted 
money,  I  do  not  know,  I  only  serve  notice  on  Simon 
Cameron  and  Henry  Sandford  that  they,  with  Thur- 
low  Weed,  were  charged  with  the  crime. 

Thurlow  Weed  was  the  pioneer  of  the  horde  of 
plunderers  that  fattened  on  our  Government  in  the 
woeful  hour  of  peril.  While  thousands  on  thousands 
marched  to  the  front  and  made  tender  of  their  pa 
triotic  lives  to  the  Republic  in  its  time  of  need, 
these  men  hurried  to  the  rear,  to  the  sound  of  the 
enemy's  guns,  to  fatten  on  the  spoils  the  struggle 
made  available.  And  when  the  fight  was  over, 
they  robbed  us  of  our  victory  by  showing  to  the 
world  that  we  had  grown  in  our  war  a  more 
deadly  enemy  to  self-government  than  the  armed 


William  H.  Seward.  147 

host  we  had  conquered  in  the  field.  At  the  end  of 
nearly  a  century,  they  made  the  Republic  more  of  a 
doubtful  experiment  than  when  the  Fathers  launched 
it  out  of  the  Revolution.  They  who  were  despica 
ble  thieves  in  the  beginning-  were  respectable  mill 
ionaires  at  the  end,  and  the  equality  of  political 
rights  secured  by  the  Fathers  is  rendered  of  no  avail 
by  the  inequality  of  property  that,  hedged  in  by 
law,  strengthened  by  monopoly,  and  made  perpetual 
through  corporations,  gives  us  the  same  woes  that 
for  ages  have  held  labor  to  a  condition  of  unrequited 
toil  in  Europe,  where  one  class  that  produces  all 
enjoys  nothing,  while  another  class  that  produces 
nothing  enjoys  all. 

For  nearly  a  century  the  best  government  under 
the  sun,  founded  on  the  proposition  that  all  men  are 
born  equal,  held  four  millions  of  blacks  in  abject 
slavery.  The  convulsion  that  freed  us  from  this 
shameful  inconsistency  resulted  in  a  corrupt  domin 
ion  of  money  that  has  so  degraded  our  civil  service, 
that  to  elect  an  official  is  to  commission  a  thief,  and 
the  Republic,  which  should  be  a  model  and  an  ex 
ample  to  ail  humanity,  is  a  by-word  and  a  reproach. 

This  recognition  of  a  melancholy  fact  has  carried 
me  some  distance  from  Wm.  H.  Seward,  and  I  am 
glad  that  it  is  so.  Knowing  this  eminent  man 
intimately,  and  studying  his  character  and  career 
from  a  strictly  impartial  standpoint,  I  can  well  hope 
that  it  is  possible  to  make  his  purity  consist  with  his 
Weed  partnership.  I  know  that,  as  I  have  ad- 


148  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

mitted,  this  is  difficult,  and,  to  a  casual  observer, 
seems  impossible;  but  I  am  satisfied  that  it  can  be 
done.  Seward,  with  his  delicate  organization  and 
keen,  suggestive  mind,  had  trained  himself  in  the 
traditions  of  a  past  which  taught  its  disciple  that 
worldly  wickedness  indicated  ability.  To  be  bad 
was  to  be  clever.  The  Fathers  of  our  Government 
received  from  Europe  the  doctrine  held  among 
leaders,  that  innocence  was  not  only  Utopian,  but  an 
indication  of  weakness,  and  so  practised  lives  in 
imitation  of  their  models  that  had  in  them  more 
of  sin  than  usefulness.  A  devotion  to  wine,  women, 
and  infidelity  gave  proof  of  superior  intellect,  while 
the  Walpolian  maxim  that  every  man  has  his  price 
made  the  then  estimate  of  humanity.  That  such 
characters  in  our  immortal  patriots  fail  to  reach 
us,  and  that  we  have  scant  knowledge  of  such  traits 
in  them,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  masses  of  the 
revolutionary  era  were  more  virtuous  than  their  lead 
ers,  and  that  on  these  leaders'  tombs  we  have  re 
corded,  "  Not  what  they  were,  but  wiiat  they  should 
have  been."  If  my  reader  doubts  this  let  him  study 
carefully  the  private  life  of  the  greatest  saint,  in  pop 
ular  estimation,  of  that  day.  I  refer  to  Alexander 
Hamilton,  the  friend  of  Washington,  and  the  so- 
called  martyr  slain  by  Burr. 

I  have  no  thought  of  asserting  in  this  that  William 
H.  Seward  was  at  all  a  bad  man.  With  no  turn  for 
women,  and  no  taste  for  wine,  he  neither  gambled 
nor  stole.  He  affected  a  wickedness  he  did  not  feel. 


William  H.  Seward.  149 

because  such  affectation  was,  in  his  estimation,  good 
form  in  a  statesman.  Had  an  evil  act  been  proposed 
to  him,  he  would  not  have  resented  the  proposal 
because  it  was  bad,  but  for  that  it  was  insulting-. 
Of  refined,  gentlemanly  instincts  and  high 'training, 
he  was  willing  to  condone  in  others  practices  not  foi 
a  moment  to  be  tolerated  in  himself.  No  man,  for 
example,  could  denounce  the  sin  of  slavery  with 
more  power  than  he,  and  yet  no  Abolition  leader  was 
so  intimate  and  popular  with  slave-holders  as  our 
distinguished  diplomat.  Thurlow  Weed  was  to 
Seward  a  breakwater  that  kept  the  ruder  and  morey 
vulgar  features  of  political  corruption  from  his  sight/ 
He  knew  all  this.  Riding  in  the  calm  security  of  his 
quiet  life,  he  heard,  without  seeing  or  being  disturbed, 
the  ugly  waves  beyond.  Among  the  sober,  earnest 
men  of  the  Abolition  faith  with  whom  he  acted  he 
was  regarded  as  insincere.  His  intimacy  with  and 
friendship  for  the  fire-eaters  of  the  South  added  to 
the  suspicion,  and  his  light  cynical  tone  in  treating 
of  all  topics  made  the  hot-gospellers  of  the  Anti- 
Slavery  Army  more  than  doubt  him. 

We  begin  life  with  the  discovery  that  all  good 
things  are  dull,  and  we  too  generally  end  in  con 
sidering  all  dull  things  good.  Not  only  this,  but  to 
convince  others,  one  must  prove  one's  self  an  earnest 
believer.  This  is  not  consistent  with  a  cynical  or 
light  treatment  of  the  faith.  There  was  a  Judas 
who  betrayed,  but  not  a  jester  who  amused  among 
the  apostles. 


150  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

This  is  not  touching-  on  the  shrewd  observation  of 
Torn  Corwin,  of  Ohio,  that  the  world  has  a  contempt 
for  the  man  that  amuses  it.  A  cynical,  philosoph 
ical  mind  like  Seward's  might,  and  probably  did, 
scorn  to  amuse  and  create  distrust.  The  contempt 
was  all  on  one  side.  He  had  a  way  of  not  only  look 
ing"  through  shams,  even  earnest  emblems  of 
something  held  sacred  by  the  popular  mind,  but  of 
tearing  off  the  outside  and  exposing  the  bran  stuff 
ing  of  an  idol.  For  example,  I  met  him  the  day  after 
the  issuance  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and 
complimented  the  Administration  upon  the  paper. 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "  we  have  let  off  a  puff  of  wind 
over  an  accomplished  fact." 

"  What  do  you  mean,  Mr.  Seward  ?  " 

"  I  mean  that  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  was 
uttered  in  the  first  gun  fired  at  Sumter,  and  we 
have  been  the  last  to  hear  it.  As  it  is,  we  show  our 
sympathy  with  slavery  by  emancipating  slaves  where 
we  cannot  reach  them,  and  holding  them  in  bondage 
where  we  can  set  them  free." 

With  these  unpopular  qualities,  Seward  would 
never  have  worked  to  the  front  and  become  a  leader 
of  men  but  for  this  partnership  with  Thurlow  Weed . 
Possessed  of  more  force  of  character  than  intellect, 
Thurlow  Weed  made  up  in  cunning  all  he  lacked  in 
brain.  His  opinions  were  convictions  so  long  as 
they  harmonized  with  the  majority,  and  on  that 
majority  depended  his  earnestness  in  their  utterance. 
He  realized  at  an  early  day  that  nothing  so  offends 


William  H.  Seivard.  151 

as  unpopular  views,  and  he  made  it  a  point  never  to 
offend  in  that  way.  As  he  had  no  views  of  his 
own,  this  was  easy.  He  felt  that  if  Seward  knew 
less  he  would  be  more  successful,  and  would  have 
dissolved  the  partnership  or  never  entered  into  it 
but  for  the  fact  that  some  brain  and  a  little  culture 
were  necessary  in  the  political  field  of  New  York. 
The  masses  had  not  yet  learned  to  disregard  intellect 
in  their  leaders,  and  the  memories  of  Hamilton,  Burr, 
De  Witt  Clinton,  and  the  influence  of  Van  Buren, 
Silas  Wright,  Marcy,  and  other  statesmen,  was 
yet  upon  them.  Thurlow  Weed,  with  his  peculiar 
shrewdness,  turned  over  to  his  co-worker  all  the 
honors  of  office,  while  retaining-  to  himself  all  the 
emoluments  that  came  from  success.  He  realized 
the  fact  that  there  was  but  one  man  with  whom  he 
could  harmonize  in  such  work,  and  when  poor  Hor 
ace  Greeley,  whose  brain  and  popular  pen  he  and 
Seward  had  used  for  all  they  were  worth,  proposed 
taking  to  himself  a  little  of  the  influence  to  be  ob 
tained  from  official  recognition,  the  two  gave  the 
able  editor  to  understand  that  they  could  not  approve 
of  any  such  ambitious  design  on  the  part  of  their 
editor.  Horace  Greeley,  who  to  the  ignorance  and 
trusting  simplicity  of  a  child  added  a  strange  power 
of  persuasion  with  his  pen,  could  not  understand  that 
he  was  disqualified  for  office  because  he  knew  too 
much,  and  could  not  be  controlled  by  the  two  for 
whose  information  on  any  subject  he  had  a  profound 
contempt. 


152  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

Thurlow  Weed  was  as  strange  as  Seward  was 
remarkable.  Tall,  slender,  awkward,  and  solemn, 
in  his  ways,  he  had  a  stoop  in  his  shoulders  that  did 
not  come  from  study  of  books,  but  from  bending 
over  in  a  confidential  way  to  hear  what  others  had 
to  say.  He  was  the  most  confidential  man  in  man 
ner  I  ever  encountered.  In  my  first  interview 
with  him,  after  an  hour's  talk  on  my  part,  I  left  im 
pressed  with  his  superior  sagacity,  until,  in  humility, 
I  came  to  remember  that  I  had  done  all  the  talking. 
He  won  men  as  a  heartless  belle  wins  lovers,  through 
the  use  of  his  ears,  and  in  this  he  had  not  only  un 
wearied  patience,  but  a  confidential  air  that  im 
pressed  his  victim,  as  the  belle  does  her  admirer,  with 
the  belief  that  he  was  the  only  one  in  all  the  world 
in  whom  he  thus  confided.  His  manner,  in  this  re 
spect,  was  simply  superb.  He  never  spoke  save  in 
a  subdued  tone,  as  if  he  feared  others  might  hear 
what  he  was  very  careful  never  to  utter.  The  in 
tense  expression  of  his  mysterious  eyes,  as  he  looked 
at  arid  listened  to  his  victim,  discounted  the  fascina 
tion  sung  of  in  the  Ancient  Mariner.  What  can  you 
do  with  a  man  who  leads  you  to  a  remote  corner  of 
a  room  and,  in  the  most  deferential  manner,  tells 
you  nothing  in  a  low,  confidential  tone  ? 

I  find  myself  returning  in  this  to  Thurlow  Weed. 
The  truth  is,  the  student  of  history  delving  in  the 
facts  necessary  to  a  knowledge  of  our  great  diplo 
mat,  whose  intellect,  character,  and  position  had  so 
much  to  do  with  the  preservation  of  the  Republic, 


William  II.  Seward.  153 

cannot  separate  Seward  from  Wood.  An  old  story 
illustrates  lio\v  tliis  stood.  It  tells  us  of  Seward, 
when  Governor  of  New  York,  trying  to  convince  the 
driver  of  a  stage-coach  of  the  fact.  The  cunning 
old  whip  looked  incredulously,  from  the  corners  of 
his  fishy  eyes,  at  the  little  hook-nosed  man  at  his 
side,  and  gave  expression  to  his  belief  that  he  had  an 
escaped  lunatic  on  the  box.  Seward,  much  amused 
and  slightly  irritated,  cried  out  to  an  old  friend  and 
prominent  politician  standing  upon  the  porch  of  a 
tavern  before  which  the  coach  had  drawn  up  : 

"  I  say,  Tom,  tell  this  aged  man  of  the  reins  that 
I  am  Governor  of  New  York,  or  he  will  tumble  me 
off." 

"  I  won't  tell  any  such  lie,  William." 

"  Sir,"  replied  Seward,  "  do  you  mean  to  say  that 
I  am  not?" 

"Certainly  I  do." 

"  Who  is,  then  ?  " 

"  Thurlow  Weed,  of  course."  A  roar  of  laughter 
from  the  inside  testified  to  the  wit  of  the  sally,  which 
was  good  because  so  ludicrously  true. 

Weed  made  a  great  success  of  his  cleverly  organ 
ized  machine  in  New  York,  and  he  secured  Seward 
upon  the  pedestal  at  Washington,  where  his  brilliant 
parts  won  him  a  national  reputation.  At  Chicago, 
however,  Weed's  management  proved  Seward's  de 
feat  when  the  attempt  was  made  to  nominate  New 
York's  favorite  as  the  candidate  of  the  newly-organ 
ized  party.  Seward  was  undoubtedly  the  leading 


154  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

aspirant  for  the  nomination,  and  would  have  been 
more  popular  than  Lincoln  at  the  polls.  This  be 
cause  the  great  body  of  voters  to  be  relied  on  were 
old  Whigs.  This  political  organization  was,  in  its 
day,  eminently  respectable  and  conservative.  Its 
voters  knew  Seward,  and  while  distrusting-  him,  they 
had  not  the  fear  they  felt  when  called  on  to  support 
a  low,  vulgar  rail-splitter  of  Illinois.  He,  Lincoln, 
was  supported  by  the  vile  Abolitionists  whom  they 
considered  cranks,  possessed  of  no  regard  whatever 
for  our  national  progress  and  high  business  interests. 
This  would  have  nominated  Seward  had  not  Weed, 
to  overcome  the  outside  pressure  at  Chicago,  im 
ported  a  body  of  roughs  from  New  York  City  to 
roar  down  the  Illinois  crowd.  These  bully-grog 
bruisers  were  then  new  to  conventions,  and  they 
frightened  and  offended  the  men  they  were  intended 
to  influence.  The  writer  of  this  had  been  selected  as 
a  delegate  to  the  Convention,  and,  although  cheated 
out  of  his  seat,  made  a  part  of  the  Chase  contingent 
from  Ohio.  Our  headquarters  were  next  to  those 
of  the  Seward  people  from  New  York,  and  I  well 
remember  the  deep  disgust  expressed  for  the  vulgar, 
noisy,  drunken  crowd  that  hurrahed,  till  hoarse,  for 
Seward.  The  Republican  party  was  then  new,  and 
influenced,  if  not  led,  by  the  thoughtful,  true-hearted 
Abolitionists,  and  the  entire  Convention,  with  the 
exception  of  this  Seward  element,  approached  the 
duty  devolving  upon  it  in  the  prayerful  spirit  of  men 
who  felt  that  grave  issues  were  in  their  hands. 


William  H.  Seward.  155 

The  first  ballot  placed  Seward  and  Lincoln  in  the 
lead,  nearly  evenly  balanced,  and  the  conduct  of  the 
Seward  claqueurs  gave  the  majority  to  Lincoln. 
Weed  was  not  to  blame.  His  knowledge  of  human 
nature  did  not  include  the  earnest,  honest  men  who 
first  came  forward  to  lead  a  forlorn  hope,  and  who 
were  amazed  and  much  distressed  to  mid  themselves, 
after  the  election,  victors. 

Fortunately  for  the  country  the  newly-elected 
President  called  to  his  Cabinet  the  two  great  men, 
Seward  and  Chase,  who  had  contended  in  the  Con 
vention  for  the  honor  he  had  so  strangely  won. 

This  was  Providence,  that  g-ave  us  the  advantage 
from  the  start ;    especially  was  it  so  in  the  case  of 
Seward.     Of  all  the  eminent  men  brought  to  the. 
front  in  that  revolution,  William  H.  Seward  was  the  \ 
only  one  who  looked  down  the  confused  and  darkened    \ 
future  with  the  eye  of  a  prophet.     He  alone,  from     \ 
his  superior  knowledge  of  the  South,  saw  that  we 
stood  upon  the  crumbling  precipice  of  a  terrible  civil     / 
war,  and  what  he  did,  through  superior  intelligence,    / 
and  what  his  associates  did  through  ignorance,  saved  / 
to  us  the  Capital,  and,  through  that  salvation,  the/ 
Union  itself. 

Looking  back  over  those  hours  pregnant  with 
startling  events,  the  student  of  history  marvels  at 
the  stupidity  of  the  South  in  permitting  the  inaugu 
ration  of  Lincoln  at  Washington.  The  seat  of  g*ov- 
ernment  was  in  the  enemy's  country,  and  why  it 
should  have  been  abandoned  to  the  North  is  difficult 


150  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

to  comprehend,  until  we  get  at  the  reason  for  the 
fact,  when  it  is  simple  enough.  The  leaders  of  the 
South  could  no  more  be  made  to  believe  that  the 
people  of  the  North  would  fight,  than  our  leaders 
could  be  convinced  that  the  South  meant  war,  and  in 
addition  to  this,  the  men  who  appealed  to  arms  to 
enforce  their  secession  were  satisfied  that  if  the 
appeal  ever  came  to  any  such  bloody  issue,  the  Dem 
ocrats  of  the  North  would  not  only  side  with  them, 
but  take  up  arms  in  their  behalf.  This  received 
sanction  in  the  pitiful  and  prayerful  appeals  from 
Democrats  in  the  free  States  to  their  brethren  in  the 
South  to  spare  the  Union,  as  if  the  fate  of  the  nation 
trembled  in  the  hands  of  the  lordly  slaveholders. 

Abraham  Lincoln  could  not  be  made  to  realize  the 
existence  of  the  gathering  storm.  He  would  not 
admit  that  the  masses  could  be  aroused  to  a  bloody 
war  against  their  brothers  upon  a  mere  abstract 
political  proposition,  such  as  States'  Rights,  as  if 
that  had  anything  to  do  with  the  civil  conflict.  Had 
he  not  made  the  argument,  and  won  his  cause,  in 
that  famous  war  of  words  between  Douglas  and 
himself  ?  States'  Rights  was  a  worn-out  superstition 
at  the  best,  but  he  relied  mainly  on  his  assertion 
that  no  people  ever  got  up  and  went  to  killing  on  an 
abstract  proposition.  Other  eminent  men  of  our  side 
held  that  the  South  had  no  resources.  "They  will 
have  to  come  to  us  for  arms  without  money  to  pay 
for  them,"  said  Hannibal  Hamlin  ;  "  and  for  coffins," 
added  John  P.  Hale.  "  To  put  a  regiment  in  the 


William  H.  Seward.  157 

field  costs  more  than  the  income  of  an  entire  Southern 
State,"  said  Mr.  Speaker  Banks;  and  so,  while  Jeff. 
Davis  calmly  waited  for  Virginia  to  pass  her  ordi 
nance  of  secession,  with  no  protection  for  our  national 
capital  save  General  Winfleld  Scott  and  the  Marine 
Band,  the  President  gave  his  days  and  nights  to 
selecting  office-holders  for  the  positions  from  which 
the  Democrats,  much  to  their  surprise  and  disgust, 
were  being  dismissed.  The  unbelieving  North  made 
no  preparations,  and  the  South  only  such  as  it  thought 
necessary  to  enforce  the  popular  cry  of,  "  Let  the 
erring  sisters  depart  in  peace." 

Mr.  Seward  feared  that  the  South  would  begin  at\ 
the  beginning,  and ,  seizing  on  the  Capital,  prevent  the      \ 
inauguration  of  the  President  elect.     To  prevent  this       I 
he  gave  adhesion  to  the  belief  then  prevalent,  as  I      / 
have  said,  that  there  would  be  no  armed  conflict.      I 
He  desired  to  see  the  representatives  from  the  revolt-     / 
ing  States  leave  Washington  in  peace.     To  this  end    / 
he  made  his  famous  conciliation  speech  in  the  Senate,  / 
which,  while  deluding  the  Confederate  leaders  into  a/ 
sense  of  security,  disappointed  and  disgusted  theu 
radical  men  at  the  North.     The  wrathful  chiefs  oy 
the    turbulent  South  were   lulled  into  a  belief  in 
Northern  non-resistance,  and  left  f ulry  convinced  that 
on  their  first  armed  demonstration,   and  perhaps 
before,  they  would  be  invited  back  to  negotiate  terms 
of  separation.     Indeed  their  only  anxiety  was  in  the 
fear  that  some  sort  of  terms  might  be  agreed  on  that 
would    perpetuate  the  hated    union.       Their  most 


158  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

noted  leader  said,  "  If  a  blank  sheet  were  given  us 
upon  which  to  write  the  terras  on  which  we  might 
remain,  the  sheet  would  be  returned  unstained  by 
ink."  They  were  more  anxious  to  get  the  slave 
States  committed  to  secession  than  they  were  to 
commit  the  North  to  any  terms  of  abject  submission. 
It  wras  not  their  policy  to  fetch  on  an  armed  collision 
before  a  solemn  compact  had  been  entered  upon,  com 
mitting  the  slave  States  to  a  position  their  pride 
would  force  them  to  uphold,  after  once  making-  it 
known  to  the  world.  Hence  Jeff.  Davis  waited  on 
Virginia's  legislature,  when  he  could  have  seized 
Washington  with  an  armed  mob  of  Virginians. 

There  is  another  fact  to  be  kept  in  view,  and  that  is 
that,  so  far  as  the  war  issues  were  concerned  at  home, 
Washington  City  was  of  small  importance.  Its  loss 
would  not,  in  the  end,  have  affected  the  result.  Our 
National  Capital  differed  from  the  capitals  in  Europe 
in  not  being  a  great  commercial  centre,  and  had  no 
significance  be3^ond  that  which  attaches  to  a  place 
selected  for  a  Government  to  meet  and  transact  bus 
iness  that  could  have  been  quite  as  well  carried  on  at 
any  other  point.  The  only  effect  of  its  loss  would 
have  been  to  arouse  to  greater  wrath  the  loyal 
people  of  the  free  States.  The  effect  on  the  govern 
ments  of  Europe,  however,  where  our  peculiar  insti 
tutions  were  not  clearly  understood,  would  have  been 
widely  different  and  disastrous  to  our  cause.  It 
would  have  been  taken  to  be  as  significant  as  the 
loss  of  London  or  Paris  under  like  circumstances. 


William  H.  Seward.  159 


It  is  well  for  us  that  the  stupid  sense  of  security 
founded  upon  the  belief  that  the  North  would  not 
attempt  coercion  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  and  the 
ignorance  of  our  own  Government,  that  made  it  re 
gard  the  disturbance  South  as  so  much  bluster,  that 
would  die  out  on  the  fact  being-  demonstrated  that 
the  North  was  not  to  be  intimidated  by  such  political 
demonstrations  and  threats,  prevented  any  move 
ment  looking-  either  to  the  defence  or  the  capture  of 
the  Capital.  That  there  Avas  no  danger  that  any 
effort  against  the  Capital  would  be  made  was  the 
view  taken  by  President  Lincoln  and  all  of  his 
Cabinet,  save  William  H.  Seward. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  duly  inaugurated,  a  grand 
inauguration  ball  followed,  and  the  President  and 
Cabinet  turned  their  attention  to  filling  the  offices 
from  the  immense  horde  that  crowded  Washington. 
Nor  did  they  give  any  serious  attention  to  the  ordi 
nances  of  secession  being'  passed  by  the  Southern 
States,  or  to  the  arming-  and  drilling  of  troops  until 
they  were  startled  by  the  guns  fired  on  Sumter, 
which  sent  a  thrill  throughout  the  loyal  States,  and 
brought  a  people  to  their  feet  in  wrath  that  subju 
gation  alone  could  appease. 

President  Lincoln  tendered,  and  Mr.  Seward  ac 
cepted,  the  portfolio  of  the  State  Department.  This 
was  given  the  distinguished  Senator,  not  because 
of  any  peculiar  fitness  he  was  known  to  possess  for 
the  position,  but  for  that  it  was  considered  the 
highest  place  in  the  Cabinet;  and  Mr.  Seward, 


1GO  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

having-  received,  next  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  the  greatest 
vote  in  the  Convention  at  Chicago,  was  thought, 
therefore,  to  "be  entitled  to  the  place.  In  the  same 
way  Salmon  P.  Chase  was  assigned  to  the  Treasury, 
and  Simon  Cameron  to  the  War  Department.  All 
the  prominent  candidates  for  the  Presidential  nomi 
nation  were  thus  provided  for. 

The  State  Department  had  been,  before  the  war  of 
1861,  a  mere  show  place,  and  could  have  been  wiped 
out  without  any  great  loss  to  our  Government. 
Through  all  the  Administrations,  from  that  of 
Washington  down  to  Buchanan,  the  Secretary  of 
State  had  posed  as  a  grave  figure-head,  possessed  of 
a  great  name  and  little  or  no  power.  Our  infant 
Republic,  separated  by  wide  seas  from  the  nations 
of  Europe,  and  not  only  separated  from,  but  antag 
onized  by,  our  form  of  government,  saw  no  necessity 
for  the  delicate  and  complicated  machinery  that  goes 
to  make  up  state-craft,  and  so,  while  organizing  a 
State  Department,  left  that  department  without  the 
power  that  gives  it  significance.  Jealous  of  irre 
sponsible  and  unguarded  trusts,  the  framers  of  our 
Government  confined  the  treaty-making  power  to 
the  President  and  Senate.  The  President  alone, 
nor  the  Senate  alone,  can  commit  the  Government 
to  any  proposition  in  that  direction,  and  the  re 
sult  is  that  all  such  covenants  are  negotiated  for 
at  Washington.  The  Secretary  of  State  is  power 
less  in  this  behalf,  and  the  consequence  is  that  we 
have  been,  and  must  ever  remain,  under  our  Const!- 


William  H.  Seivard.  161 

tution,  without  a  diplomatic  corps  such  as  exists 
and  is  recognized  as  necessary  by  European  govern 
ments.  We  send  gentlemen  abroad  under  the 
imposing  titles  of  Ministers,  but  they  are  in  reality 
only  clerks  of  the  State  Department,  sort  of  Gov 
ernment  Post-offices  in  Europe,  where  they  play  at 
being  diplomats,  much  to  the  amusement  of  the 
able  and  polished  gentlemen  of  the  real  diplomatic 
corps. 

There  is  really  no  great  loss  in  being  deprived 
of  a  diplomacy  that  has  come  to  be  synonymous  with 
duplicity,  and  presupposes  evil  designs  to  be  met  and 
overcome  by  evil  practices.  War  in  Europe  has 
been  defined  by  an  eminent  Russian  statesman  as 
disorganized  diplomacy,  and,  as  a  rule,  one  is  as 
iniquitous  as  the  other.  As  we  have  no  boundaries 
to  be  affected,  no  political  or  other  rights  to  be  en 
dangered,  our  entire  diplomacy  can  be  reduced  to  the 
one  axiom,  promulgated  by  Secretary  Marc}%  of 
demanding  nothing  but  the  right,  and  submitting  to 
nothing  that  is  wrong.  Ordinarily,  under  this  state 
of  fact,  we  can  well  dispense  with  the  farce  of  sending 
to  Europe  our  successful  stump  orators  under  the 
high-sounding  titles  of  Envoys  Extraordinary,  Min 
isters  Resident,  or  Charge  d' Affaires  to  disport  them 
selves  at  courts  in  gold-embroidered  garments, 
greatly  to  the  amazement  and  entertainment  of 
European  statesmen. 

There  are,  however,  exceptions  to  all  rules,  and 
ours  came  when  the  South,  in  revolt,  sent  her  ablest 


1G2  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

men  to  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  soliciting  inter 
ference  in  her  behalf.  It  was  necessary  to  meet 
these  advocates  with  a  like  array  of  eminent  men 
from  our  side.  This  was  the  grave  duty  imposed  on 
William  H.  Seward  when  he  accepted  the  position 
of  Secretary  of  State.  He  came  to  the  place  well 
equipped  for  the  trust,  and  he  had  been  trained 
through  trial  in  high  places  to  a  quick  use  of  all  he 
possessed.  Of  a  delicate,  sensitive  organization,  he 
retained  through  intellectual  acquirements  all  the 
lightning-like  perceptions  which  we  call,  for  lack 
of  a  better  word,  instinct  ;  and  to  this  he  added  the 
highest  moral  courage.  How  suggestive  was  his 
brilliant  mind  one  can  learn  by  a  study  of  the  many 
measures  which,  as  a  leader  of  his  great  State,  he 
originated  when  that  State  was  solidifying  after  the 
revolution  into  what  it  remains  at  this  day.  His 
are  impressed  on 


organic  laws  of  New  York  that  have  since  spread 
out  through,  the  Union  over  a  continent.  He  SstT 
developed  opposition  to  corporate  monopolies,  andif 
he  failed  to  restrain  altogether  that  monstrous  evil 
from  which  the  whole  country  now  suffers,  it  was  no 
fault  of  his.  He,  among  the  first,  favored  a  system 
of  public  education.  He  was  the  advocate  of  public 
j  works,  such  as  the  enlargement  of  the  Erie  Canal,  as 
well  as  other  improvements  in  aid  of  the  cheap  dis 
tribution  of  products.  He  removed  the  onerous 
disabilities  imposed  upon  foreigners.  The  reform  in 
courts  of  law,  since  so  generally  copied  by  other 


William  H.  Seward.  163 

States,  came  from  him.  He  suggested  and  carried 
to  success  a  geological  survey  of  the  State.  He 
got  up  a  general  banking1  system,  and  established 
asylums  for  the  insane.  To  William  H.  Seward 
belongs  the  credit  of  abolishing  the  brutal  and  bar 
barous  practice  of  imprisonment  for  debt,  while  he 
quieted  effectually  the  great  anti-rent  war  that  at 
one  time  threatened  the  political  and  social  life  of  his  \ 
State. 

The  most  marked  and  memorable  event  of  this 
statesman's  life,  while  Governor  of  New  York,  is  to  / 
be  found  in  the  resistance  he  made  to  Virginia,  when 
the  Governor  of  that  old  Commonwealth  made  a 
demand  on  him  to  return  to  the  courts  of  Virginia 
two  sailors  charged  with  abducting  slaves.  Mr. 
Seward  took,  and  maintained  with  great  ability,  the 
ground  that  a  crime  made  such  by  State  law,  that 
was  not  recognized  as  a  crime  at  common  law,  could 
not  be  sustained  outside  the  locality  where  such 
statutory  provision  existed.  In  this  Governor 
Seward  ignored  the  guarantees  of  the  Constitution, 
"  that  compact  with  hell,"  as  the  Abolitionists  des 
ignated  the  sacred  instrument  which,  based  on  an 
equality  of  human  rights,  provided  for  the  enforce 
ment  of  the  saddest  form  of  human  servitude.  If 
the  free  States  could  be  made  to  return  fugitive 
slaves  to  their  masters,  then,  under  the  recognized 
rule  that  laws  carry  in  themselves  all  provisions 
necessary  to  their  enforcement,  the  kidnappers  of 
slaves  could  also  be  returned  for  punishment. 


1C4  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

It  is  singular,  looking-  back  on  those  stirring 
times,  to  note  that  the  Abolitionists  were  the  strict 
est  advocates  of  States'  Eights,  and  went  beyond 
Calhoun  himself  in  subtle  arguments  to  sustain  that 
superstition  of  Colonial  times  which  gave  sover 
eignty  not  only  to  each  separate  Colony  of  the  old 
thirteen,  but  extended  the  principle  to  the  new  States 
that  were  made  by  the  General  Government,  very 
much  as  a  State  makes  a  county.  Not  only  did  the 
officials  of  New  England,  in  common  with  Governor 
Seward  of  New  York,  claim  a  sacred  soil  equal  to 
that  of  Virginia,  but  Governor  Chase  set  up  the 
same  sort  of  sovereignty  for  Ohio.  The  absurdity 
of  all  this  became  yet  more  apparent  after  the  war 
opened,  when  the  powers  at  Washington  had  to  rely 
upon  Avar  governors  for  troops,  while  the  seceded 
States  resolved  themselves  into  a  military  despotism, 
with  its  acknowledged  head  at  Richmond. 

Mr.  Seward  entered  upon  his  duties  as  Secretary 
of  State  with  a  clear  head  and  high  courage.  One 
reads  the  many-volumed  despatches  from  his  pen  to 
our  agents  abroad  during  those  four  years  with 
mingled  amazement  and  admiration,  not  unmixed 
with  pity.  There  is  a  precision  and  clearness  in  these 
state  papers  unsurpassed  at  home  or  abroad  in  like 
documents,  and  there  is  a  calm  conservative  tone  in 
dicative  of  a  courage  that  lie  who  reads  between  the 
lines,  by  the  light  of  the  terrible  events  then  being 
enacted,  knows  had  little  foundation  in  fact.  The 
great  impending  danger  to  a  cause  that  carried  in  its 


William  H.  Seward. 

bosom  the  existence  of  empire  was  foreign  interfe 
rence,  and  we  know  that  every  line  of  these  brave 
utterances  was  penned  with  a  sinking-  heart.  Had 
the  smallest  power  of  Europe  recognized  the  Confed 
eracy,  not  only  would  the  greatest  war  power,  that 
of  France,  have  immediately  intervened,  but  such 
recognition  would  have  made  available  the  millions 
ready  for  investment  in  King  Cotton  and  his  empire. 
Louis  Napoleon,  the  imbecile,  who  so  long  masque 
raded  in  the  garb  of  the  Little  Corporal,  and  with 
such  fatal  effect,  not  only  openly  avowed  himself 
ready  to  accept  the  new  political  organization  of  the 
South,  but  backed  her  emissaries  in  their  appeals  to 
England  for  a  like  avowal. 

The  novel  Congress,  made  up  mainly  of  represent 
atives  from  the  free  States,  in  its  unpatriotic  greed, 
instead  of  aiding  the  sorely  perplexed  Administra 
tion,  threw  the  deadliest  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the 
Secretary  of  State.  The  war  was  unpopular  in 
Europe  because  of  the  cotton  famine  that  followed 
its  beginning,  from  our  blockade  of  Southern  ports, 
and  while  the  Confederacy  was  offering  free  trade, 
our  Congress  seized  on  the  opportunity  presented 
by  the  absence  of  Southern  representatives  to  enact 
the  highest  tariff  ever  imposed  upon  an  intelligent 
people.  The  insolence  of  this  challenge  to  all  the 
world  was  only  equalled  by  its  stupidit}T.  We  not 
only  wantonly  offended  the  powers  upon  whose  inac 
tion  depended  our  existence  as  a  nation,  but  at  a 
time  when  we  needed  the  greatest  income  from  cus- 


166  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

toms  to  carry  on  the  war,  we  ran  up  a  Chinese  wall 
of  prohibition  against  income  that  was  only  sur 
mounted  by  a  loss  of  credit  and  a  consequent  fall 
of  value  in  our  currency.  The  augmentation  of 
prices  to  the  foreign  importer  overrode  our  prohi 
bition.  This  was  the  statesmanship  of  our  leaders 
in  Congress  that  well-nigh  proved  fatal  to  the 
Republic. 

Secretary  Seward  penned  his  brave  sentences  amid 
the  drift  of  wrecked  armies  that  floated  back  upon 
the  Capital  through  which  they  had  marched  to 
martial  music,  rising  and  falling  upon  the  wride  ave 
nues  like  the  waves  of  a  resistless  sea,  and  he  heard 
for  nearly  two  years  the  brief  tales  of  shameful  dis 
asters,  broken  in  all  that  time  by  only  one  victory 
gained  in  the  West  under  the  leadership  of  the  only 
great  man  under  epaulets,  the  man  whose  name 
was  destined  to  be  associated  with  victories  alone. 
The  name  of  George  H.  Thomas  sounded  in  his  ears 
like  the  trump  of  the  archangel  awakening  the  dead 
to  an  immortal  resurrection.  The  small  creatures 
that  pecked  at  great  events  beyond  their  ability 
to  compass  sneered  at  Seward's  continued  assertions 
that  the  trouble  would  end  in  ninety  days.  They 
little  dreamed  that  this  was  meant  for  far-off  shores, 
where  it  had  potent  influence  among  men  ignorant 
of  the  serious  effects  of  the  disasters  that  made  up  the 
record  of  our  unavailing  efforts.  To  the  same  end 
he  encouraged  public  amusements,  and  ctimulated 
the  wife  of  the  President  to  gayeties  at  the  Execu- 


William  H.  Seward.  167 

tive  Mansion,  where  the  sound  of  revelry  failed  to 
drown  the  cry  of  defeat. 

We  can  well  understand  now  why  the  nephew  of 
his  uncle  sought  to  aid  the  Confederacy  in  its  evil 
designs,  for  after  his  attempt  through  Mexico  to 
destroy  our  Government  he  was  ignominiously 
snuffed  out  at  Sedan.  Then  the  world  opened  its 
stupid  eyes  to  the  fact  that  Napoleon  le  petit  had 
not  even  sense  enough  to  be  a  successful  charlatan. 
The  imperial  robes  of  the  great  man  whose  Napo 
leonic  dynasty  he  burlesqued  had  not,  at  the  date  of 
our  war,  collapsed  into  a  heap  of  rags,  and  the  poor 
actor  who  wore  them  was  not  only  a  terror  to  our 
Secretary,  but  to  all  Europe.  It  was  not  then  known 
that  his  empire  was  a  mere  shell,  honeycombed  with 
rot  that  enriched  the  little  rogues  wrho  bowed  before 
him  to  the  utter  destruction  of  all  power.  We  now 
learn  from  those  state  papers  that  while  Louis 
Napoleon  openly  avowed  his  malign  designs  against 
our  Republic,  his  diplomatic  agents  at  London  were 
insidiously  at  wrork  upon  the  English  ministry  in  an 
effort  to  perfect  an  alliance  that  would  join  these 
two  great  war  powers  in  fatal  hostility  to  our 
cause.  • 

The  British  Government  failed  the  French  Em 
peror,  but  we  have  no  cause  to  be  thankful  for 
any  kindly  feeling  toward  us,  or  any  sense  of  justice 
on  the  part  of  our  cousins.  They  were  animated 
by  no  high  principle  nor  any  feeling  of  sympathy. 
Mr.  S3  ward,  realizing  this,  caught  up  and  used  only 


168  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

appeals  to  the  selfish  interests  of  the  shop-keepers, 
whose  business  dominated  not  only  official  action  in 
affairs  at  home,  but  the  world  over.  The  English 
Ministry  saw  a  few  Confederate  cruisers  sweep  our 
commerce  from  the  seas,  and  knew  well  that,  in  case 
of  war,  Yankee  privateers  would,  in  turn,  destroy 
their  entire  mercantile  marine,  and  so  turned  a  deaf 
ear  to  the  diplomatic  pleadings  of  their  ally.  While 
our  Secretary  presented  officially,  with  as  much 
point  and  clearness  as  polite  diplomatic  language 
would  allow,  the  interests  of  the  English  in  the 
premises,  he  sent  among  the  merchants  and  manu 
facturers  of  England  men  who  could  talk  openly 
and  with  force  upon  the  issues  likely  to  arise  should 
war  be  declared.  Two  of  these,  the  Rev.  H.  W. 
Beecher  and  Archbishop  Hughes,  were  men  of  sur 
passing  ability,  and  this  ability  the  Secretary  sup 
plemented  with  the  cunning  of  Thurlow  Weed.  The 
three  did  effective  work,  and  England  not  only  left 
the  Confederacy  to  its  fate,  but,  through  her  ex 
ample,  held  harmless  the  hands  of  the  imperial 
imbecile  of  France. 

It  was,  however,  while  Europe,  restrained  by 
England,  hung  threateningly  upon  our  horizon  that 
an  event  occurred  that  well-nigh  proved  fatal  to  us. 
A  stupid  naval  officer  boarded  a  British  merchant 
man  and  took  from  her  decks  two  Confederate 
emissaries,  Messrs.  Mason  and  Slidell.  This  at  any 
time  was  cause  enough  for  war.  Our  Administra 
tion  was  shocked  and  startled,  and  yet  Secretary 


William  H.  Seward.  169 

Seward  entered  upon  the  discussion  of  the  Tiffair 
as  calmly  as  if  we  were  in  a  condition  to  enforce 
any  rights  that  might  make  a  side  for  us  in  the 
diplomatic  conflict.  He  knew  that  there  was  noth 
ing1  for  us  but  a  humiliating-  return  of  the  emis 
saries,  and  an  apology  for  the  so-called  outrage. 
Our  naval  officer  had  traversed  our  own  doctrine 
of  the  sacred  character  of  our  decks  at  sea  that 
led  to  the  war  of  1812,  while  England's  indignation 
was  in  direct  antagonism  to  what  England  had 
practised  for  a  thousand  years  in  her  claimed  right 
of  search.  The  unhappy  Secretary  admitted  the 
wrong,  and  our  Government  ordered  restitution, 
not  because  we  recognized  the  violation  of  interna 
tional  law,  in  thus  forcibly  abducting  enemies  from 
the  decks  of  a  power  with  which  we  were  at  peace, 
bat  for  that  our  captain  did  not  seize  the  vessel 
itself,  and  bring  it  into  port  for  a  trial  of  the  of 
fenders.  From  the  opening  of  the  despatch  to  its 
close  Mr.  Seward  argued  against  our  side  with 
subtle  ingenuity,  and  made  his  conclusion  so  obvious 
that  there  was  not  much  loss  of  dignity  in  his 
graceful  retreat. 

So,  through  the  grave  crisis  of  our  fate,  this  great 
man  served  his  fellow-men  to  the  triumphant  end. 
Unseen,  all-seeing,  he  and  his  fellow-laborers  at 
Washington  shaped  our  work,  directed  our  energies, 
and  guarded  us  from  peril.  Then,  when  the  task 
was  ended,  quietly  retired,  making  no  claim  for 
recognition,  asking  no  reward  other  than  that  which 


170  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

came  of  conscious  power  and  a  conscientious  dis 
charge  of  duty. 

How  discouraging  to  the  student  of  history  to  see 
men  so  great  neglected,  their  services  unrecognized, 
their  work  unknown,  while  epauletted  creatures, 
upon  whose  imbecility  rests  the  responsibility  of 
uncalled-for  carnage  that  spread  mourning  and 
cruel  desolation  over  all  the  land,  are  rewarded  in 
life  and  honored  to  immortality  in  death.  Had  it 
not  been  for  the  bullet  of  Booth,  that  shocked  the 
masses  into  a  recognition  of  Lincoln,  the  greatest 
man  of  all  our  age  would  have  shared  the  fate 
of  Stanton,  Chase,  and  Seward,  and  gone  down  to  a 
forgotten  grave,  amid  the  roar  of  artillery  that  told 
of  the  burial  of  men  the  earth  were  better  had  they 
never  been  born. 

In  the  heart  of  New  York,  a  bronze  statue  of 
heroic  size  has  been  erected  to  the  memory  of  New 
York's  greatest  statesman.  It  will  darken  into 
slow  decay,  as  his  memory  fades  into  oblivion  with 
out  probably  one  of  the  busy  millions  knowing  that, 
for  four  years,  nothing  stood  between  that  great 
commercial  centre  and  the  utter  ruin  of  a  bombard 
ment  but  the  subtle  intellect  and  patriotic  heart  of 
that  one  man.  Without  a  navy,  possessed  of  no 
coast  defences,  our  cities  on  the  sea  were  at  the 
mei'cy  of  the  weakest  naval  power  of  Europe. 

In  all  this  I  detract  nothing  from  the  fame  of 
Lincoln.  Seward  was  a  greater  man  in  one  thing, 
but  not  in  all  things,  than  Abraham  Lincoln ;  and 


William  H.  Seward.  171 

were  we  the  enlightened  people  we  claim  to  be,  the 
great  Secretary's  name  would  live  along  the  pages 
of  our  history  as  that  of  one  whose  cultured  mind, 
indomitable  will,  high  courage,  and  pure  patriotism, 
made  a  debt  we  were  proud  to  acknowledge,  thus 
honoring  ourselves  in  honoring  him. 


MAJOR-GENERAL  GEORGE  H.  THOMAS. 

THE  intellectual  qualities  which  go  to  make  a 
successful  military  man  are  not  of  the  highest 
order.  Indeed,  if  we  analyze  the  forces  which  are 
brought  into  play,  we  are  driven  to  the  conclusion 
that  military  success  is  more  a  matter  of  tempera 
ment  than  of  intellect.  The  man  of  action  cannot 
well  be  a  man  of  thought,  for  the  last  quality  em 
barrasses  if  it  does  not  destroy  the  first.  To  be 
prompt  to  act  on  a  given  emergency,  with  that 
implicit  confidence  in  one's  self  that  inspires  con 
fidence  in  others,  is  a  trait  not  in  harmony  with  the 
studious,  considerate  use  of  one's  judgment  which 
creates  distrust  and  doubt  when  one  should  have 
quick,  decisive  action. 

Of  all  the  great  captains  memorized  in  bronze 
and  marble  from  the  earliest  historic  period,  two 
only  are  noted  as  men  of  thought.  One  of  them 
was  Julius  Ccesar,  the  other  the  great  Napoleon. 
The  rest  when  called  upon  to  act  in  other  capacity 
than  that  of  killing  successfully  exhibit  pitiable  fail 
ure. 

If  the  subject  of  this  article  were  only  to  be  re 
garded  as  a  successful  general  I  would  not  be  found 


(Bronze  Statue  in  Washington.)  \ 
GENERAL  GEO.    H.   THOMAS. 


George  H.  Thomas.  173 

putting  liis  achievements  to  record.  But  he  held  in 
himself  a  strange  compound  of  thoughtfulness  and 
action,  and  in  this  respect  he  towers  above  his  asso 
ciates  in  arms.  He  would  have  been  great  in  any 
useful  pursuit  of  life,  and  in  the  line  on  which 
circumstances  called  him  to  act,  he  is  the  man  about 
whom  clusters  all  the  military  glory  of  a  civil  conflict 
on  either  side  to  which  we,  as  a  people,  can  point 
with  pride.  Quiet  and  unassuming,  he  did  his  duty — 
a  duty  that  saved,  as  much  as  one  man  could  save, 
the  great  republic,  and  then  as  quietly  sought  his 
grave,  leaving  his  great  deeds  his  only  monument. 
He  left  no  memoirs,  those  button-holding  pertinaci 
ties  in  print,  in  which  small  men,  in  small  ways,  beg 
to  be  regarded  as  great  creatures,  but,  folding  his 
cloak  about  him,  gave  the  world  freedom  of  opinion 
as  to  what  he  had  accomplished  in  behalf  of  human 
ity,  and  laid  down  to  moulder  in  his  unmarked 
grave. 

George  Henry  Thomas  was  a  Virginian  through 
several  generations.  As  he  was  of  English  origin 
on  one  side,  and  French  on  the  other,  he  should,  if 
there  is  anything  in  heredity,  have  had  the  dash  of 
the  one  and  the  staying  power  of  the  other  ;  at  least 
these  are  national  traits  which  we  attribute  to  these 
races  with  the  same  childlike  faith  in  which  we  attrib 
ute  ill-temper  to  red  hair,  and  deceit  to  the  female 
possessors  of  bead-like  black  eyes.  Thomas'  biog 
rapher,  as  he  is  dealing  with  a  Virginian,  fetches 
in  the  English  Cavaliers,  very  much  as  all  negro- 


174  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

tinted  skins  of  that  great  commonwealth  fall  back 
on  Pocahontas. 

The  early  settlers  of  our  continent  were  hard 
working-  and,  let  us  hope,  honest  laborers,  and  if  any 
of  noble  blood  found  refuge  here  they  came,  with  a 
few  exceptions,  as  criminals  escaping  conviction  or 
as  convicts  escaping  punishment.  The  great  Vir 
ginia,  home  of  the  Cavaliers,  was  for  a  period  a  penal 
colony. 

The  haste  in  which  we  seek  to  dishonor  the  graves 
of  our  ancestors  is  pitiable.  All  the  parade  of  im 
aginary  pedigrees  and  emblazoned  coats-of-arms, 
stolen  from  families  fallen  into  decay,  shame  us  as  a 
people.  That  our  honored  forefathers  braved  the 
dangers  of  an  unknown  sea,  the  perils  and  hardships 
of  the  howling  wilderness ;  that  they  with  indomi 
table  will  and  through  hard  labor  conquered  a  con 
tinent,  and  changed  the  wild  cry  of  animals  and  the 
yell  of  Indians  into  the  hum  of  busy  life — a  waste 
into  a  garden — is  of  more  honor  to  us,  their 
descendants,  than  if  we  could  trace  back  our  lineage 
to  robber  barons  whose  only  mission  on  earth  was 
to  torture  and  destroy. 

George  Henry  Thomas  had  none  of  this  false  pride 
in  his  nature.  He  was  wont  to  tell  with  glee  how, 
when  he  a  boy,  he  made  a  saddle  for  himself, 
which  his  father  was  not  able  to  purchase,  by  watch 
ing  the  saddler  day  after  day  construct  one,  he  fol 
lowing  at  home  the  lesson  learned  at  the  shop  until 
the  saddle  was  completed.  That  he  would  have 


George  H.  Thomas.  175 

made  a  first-class  mechanic  we  can  well  believe,  for 
he  had  that  in  him  which  would  have  insured  success 
in  any  walk  of  life. 

HIS  YOUTH. 

The  early  youth  of  our  man  was  as  quiet  and 
uneventful  as  his  later  years  were  full  of  tumult  and 
stirring-  events.  He  retained  to  the  last  that  quiet 
self-poise  which  reminds  one  of  the  eagle  balancing 
his  pinions  on  the  storm-cloud  while  all  else  is  in  the 
hurried  confusion  of  seeming  destruction. 

The  home  life  of  old  Virginia,  in  its  patriarchal 
simplicity,  was  exceedingly  beautiful.  One  acquaint 
ed  with  it  can  picture  the  quiet  old  mansions  gleam 
ing  white  amid  their  oaks,  rude  enough  in  their 
architecture,  but  so  home-like  in  their  calm.  Gener 
ations  of  intermarriage  had  made  all  akin,  while  the 
ties  of  family  strengthened  the  domestic  bond  that 
found  something  nearer  and  dearer  to  live  for  than 
the  mere  pursuit  of  wealth.  Their  homes  were  full 
of  sweet  human  gossip,  and  proud,  yet  kindly,  they 
lived  out  the  quiet  lives  of  brave  men  and  chaste 
women  in  striking-  contrast  to  the  money-getting 
world  around  them. 

Whether  it  is  our  peculiar  climate,  or  some  other 
subtle  cause,  that  develops  the  nerves  at  the  ex 
pense  of  all  else,  we  are  a  restless,  moving  race 
without  that  sense  of  home  which  so  distinguishes 
Virginians.  We  are  Arabs  in  boots  and  our  rest 
ing-places  in  life  are  no  better  than  tents,  giving  us 


176  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

shelter,  and  wanting-  in  all  those  sweet  associations 
that  make  of  a  locality  a  fairyland.  Arid  yet  in  the 
home  itself  is  planted  all  that  makes  a  people  really 
great.  In  it  a  mother's  love  and  a  father's  care 
train  good  citizens,  and  give  stability  to  govern 
ment  that  is  secured  by  no  other  process.  We  are 
enthusiastic  over  common  schools  and  public  insti 
tutions  and  firmly  determined  to  make  the  peda 
gogue  do  the  duty  of  the  parent.  We  build 
houses,  not  for  homes,  but  as  show  places,  to  sell  and 
build  again.  Our  very  cemeteries  are  public  parks, 
in  which  the  sacred  memories  of  the  beloved  dead  are 
lost  in  the  exhibition  of  grand  avenues  and  costly 
monuments.  We  cart  our  wealth  to  the  verge  of 
the  unknown  land  and  leave  its  evidence  to  the  liv 
ing  in  a  stunning  monument.  The  mourners  hurry 
back  to  business  to  keep  the  dead  man's  notes  from 
protest.  How7  this  sort  of  life  is  marring  our  des 
tiny  as  a  people  is  manifest  in  the  frightful  increase 
of  insanity  and  crime. 

The  perfect  and  beautiful  influences  of  home  life 
as  practised  in  old  Virginia  make  one  of  the  no 
ticeable  incidents  of  the  late  civil  conflict.  Virginia, 
the  cradle  of  patriots,  presidents,  and  statesmen,  was 
not  remarkable  for  either  her  wealth  or  intellect 
ual  life.  No  authors  were  born  to  her ;  no  books 
were  made;  no  millionaires  larded  the  lean  earth 
with  their  ill-gotten  gains  ;  but  the  standard  of  man 
hood  was  on  an  average  so  high,  the  love  and  re 
spect  for  the  old  commonwealth  so  strong,  that 


George  H.  Thomas.  177 

the  entire  war  centred  around  her  capital.  The 
States  that  had  thrown  off  the  Union  on  a  plea  of 
State  sovereignty  immediately  crystallized  into  a 
solid  government  with  its  head  at  Richmond,  and 
when  Virginia  fell  the  cause  was  lost. 

I  have  dwelt  upon  this  subject  because  in  the 
home  training  of  George  Henry  Thomas  may  be 
found  so  much  that  in  subsequent  years  made  him 
famous.  He  w-as  a  man  of  such  sterling  integrity, 
so  frank,  brave,  and  truthful,  so  tender  in  his  na 
ture,  generous  in  his  impulses,  so  sensitive  to  the 
calls  of  honor,  and  so  true  to  duty,  that  we  are 
forced  back  to  the  early  years  when  such  qualities  are 
impressed  upon  the  plastic  nature  of  youth.  What 
a  mother,  what  a  father  General  Thomas  must  have 
possessed ! 

All  boys  are  born  liars  because  lying  is  the 
consequent  result  of  weakness — the  diplomatic  ref 
uge  of  helplessness.  There  is  no  moral  training  in 
a  school.  The  popular  superstition  which  tells  us 
that  teaching  a  child  from  books  elevates  its  nature, 
and  is  all  that  is  called  for  in  the  way  of  training,  is 
curing  itself  through  the  most  costly  of  learning, 
that  of  experience.  We  have  got  far  enough  along 
to  realize  that  the  majority  of  criminals  inflicting 
humanity  are  educated  criminals. 

George  H.  Thomas  had  graduated  at  the  South 
ampton  Academy  and  had  entered  upon  the  study 
of  law  when  the  genial  John  Y.  Mason  offered  Mr. 
Rochelle,  George's  uncle,  a  cadetship  at  West  Point. 


178  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

The  choice  of  the  place  was  left  to  the  young  man 
and  promptly  accepted. 

Having-  passed  the  examination,  George  returned 
home  by  way  of  Washington  to  thank  the  Hon.  John 
Y.,  then  his  member  of  Congress,  for  his  kind  pat 
ronage.  The  Hon.  solon  said  to  the  youth  :  "  No 
cadet  appointed  from  our  district  has  ever  gradu 
ated  at  West  Point,  and  if  you  fail  I  never  want  to 
see  you  again."  He  spoke  to  one  whose  lexicon  had 
no  such  word  as  fail. 

WEST  POINT. 

This  academy  is  a  little  school  on  the  Hudson, 
popularly  supposed  to  produce  military  men.  As 
war  is  not  a  science,  hardly  an  art,  one  is  puzzled 
to  know  how  it  can  be  taught,  and  even  if  it  could 
be,  the  learned  professors  would  find  themselves 
troubled,  as  all  learned  professors  are,  to  create  the 
mind  necessary  to  apply  the  science  after  the  teach 
ing.  Of  a  thousand  pupils  most  admirably  instruct 
ed  in  law  or  physic,  one  only  is  capable  of  using  the 
information  gained. 

There  is  a  popular  superstition  to  the  effect  that 
in  training  one  to  habits  of  study,  and  an  active 
use  of  the  memory,  mind  is  actually  created,  and  of 
the  thousand  all  are  capable  of  being  lifted  to  the 
same  intellectual  level.  People  cannot  compre 
hend,  nor  be  made  to  believe,  that  in  an}r  school  the 
same  inequality  prevails  that  obtains  in  common 
life.  The  many  are  stupid,  the  few  alone  are 


George  H.  Thomas.  179 

thoughtful.  We  are  well  aware  of  the  fact  that  man 
may  be  taught  all  that  science  and  art  can  contrib 
ute  and  yet  remain  a  fool.  It  is  not  the  accumula 
tion  of  facts  that  gives  intellectual  power,  but  the 
ability  to  use  the  information  so  obtained. 

There  is  a  n^stery  in  the  public  mind  about 
West  Point  that  would  be  ludicrous,  did  it  not  carry 
such  grave  consequences.  It  is  believed  that 
through  some  unknown  and  unknowable  process  of 
education  the  little  academy  graduates  Napoleons 
every  year.  The  ancient  chestnut  which  tells  us  of 
the  machine  that  takes  in  swine  and  turns  out 
sausage  has  its  parallel  in  what  is  believed  of  West 
Point.  Raw  youths,  whose  lack  of  natural  ability 
would  cause  one  to  doubt  the  propriety  of  making 
them  clerks  in  a  country  store,  are  captured  by 
members  of  Congress,  and  in  a  few  years  gradu 
ate  into  office  where  the  lives  of  men  and  perhaps 
the  safety  of  the  country  depend  on  their  ability. 

The  mystery  is  readily  solved.  There  is  nothing 
taught  at  West  Point  that  differs  from  the  teaching  of 
any  other  academy  of  like  pretensions  save  the  train 
ing  of  the  soldier,  and  therein  lies  the  most  ludicrous 
feature  of  the  whole  affair.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
training  of  the  soldier,  however  important  and  neces 
sary  it  may  be,  that  helps  on  or  benefits  the  officer. 
After  being  taught  to  touch  elbows,  fire  a  gun,  mount 
guard,  and  dig  a  ditch,  the  poor  fellow  is  as  far  re 
moved  from  what  the  academy  claims  to  create  as 
when  he  first  began.  He  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than 


180  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

a  drill-sergeant.  As  well  asert  that  one  must  know 
how  to  shoe  a  horse  as  preliminary  to  riding  as  to 
claim  that  the  drill  of  the  private  is  necessary  to  the 
making  of  an  officer,  and  in  the  duties  of  an  officer,  as 
I  have  said,  there  is  no  science.  To  march  out,  find 
the  enemy,  and  fight  him  successfully  has  no  rules 
which  can  "be  reduced  to  practice.  General  Halleck 
wrote  a  book  on  the  art  of  war  which  was  about  as 
useful  in  a  campaign  as  a  treatise  on  infant  baptism 
would  have  been,  and  when  Halleck  was  called  upon 
to  practise  what  he  taught,  he  imitated,  in  a  feeble 
way,  the  great  Napoleon,  who  conquered  Europe  by 
setting  at  naught  all  the  wisdom  of  the  schools. 
And  the  famous  captain  left  but  one  axiom  as  the 
net  purport  and  result  of  all  his  experience,  and  that 
is  of  no  use  to  the  average  graduate,  for  it  sa3^s, 
"  The  art  of  war  is  a  calculation  of  chances." 

In  warlike  Europe,  save  in  England,  a  different 
system  prevails.  The  war  powers  have  been  a  thou 
sand  years  in  perfecting  the  private.  Promotion 
from  the  ranks  is  kept  open  under  the  belief  that  ac 
tual  service  is  a  better  school  to  graduate  in  than 
any  academy.  While  the  Government  will  under 
take  to  make  a  private,  the  creation  of  the  officer  is 
left  to  the  wisdom  of  God.  The  Almighty  is  no  re 
specter  of  rank,  and  genius  crops  out  in  the  most 
unexpected  places.  The  great  Napoleon  claimed  for 
his  armies  an  irresistible  morale,  because,  he  said, 
every  soldier  felt  that  he  carried  the  baton  of  a 
marshal  in  his  knapsack.  We  exhaust  our  military 


George  H.  Thomas.  181 

genius  in  the  supposed  creation  of  an  officer.  When 
that  is  done  we  point  to  the  proud  creature  and  say : 
"Behold  our  army."  We  have  in  ninety-nine  out 
of  a  hundred  cases  graduated  an  incompetent.  He 
is  the  natural  result  of  a  dull  plodding  nature  and  a 
good  memory,  and  in  this  our  little  military  institu 
tion  does  not  differ  from  all  other  schools  and  acad 
emies  the  world  over. 

The  process  might  be  more  of  a  success  but  for 
the  fatal  defect,  lying  at  the  foundation,  of  being 
built  on  the  English  system  that  has  an  aristocrat 
for  an  officer,  and  a  servant,  to  use  the  mildest  term, 
for  a  private.  As  we  have  no  born  aristocrats  the 
school  undertakes  to  create  them.  Of  two  boys 
taken  from  the  same  family,  one  may  be  trained  at 
West  Point  into  a  superior  being  and  the  other  made 
his  dog.  This  is  so  clearly  the  fact  that  it  is  found 
impossible  to  get  self-respecting  Americans  to  enlist, 
and  our  regular  army  is  made  up  of  foreign-born 
creatures  of  the  most  degraded  sort. 

This  feature  alone  would  have  been  fatal  to  West 
Point,  in  the  publicity  it  obtained  during  the  late 
war,  but  for  patronage  it  affords  the  Congressmen, 
aud  we  know  how  dear  is  official  patronage  to  the 
ordinary  solon.  What  we  need  to  popularize  West 
Point  is  a  law  requiring  a  graduate  to  serve  one 
year  in  the  field  as  a  private,  one  year  as  a  corporal, 
one  year  as  a  sergeant,  and  then,  a  seasoned  soldier, 
he  should  be  subject  to  a  competitive  examination 
before  being  commissioned. 


182  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

What  reason  can  be  urged  against  thus  bringing 
our  own  military  school  into  harmony  with  the  great 
principle  of  equality  that  underlies  our  Republic? 
The  French  system  of  comrades  off  duty  and  stern 
discipline  in  service  is  the  true  one  for  us.  Especially 
is  this  so  if  we  can  elevate  the  rank  and  file  without 
loss  to  the  officer. 

I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  in  giving  a  view  of 
West  Point  which  will  be  new  to  many,  and,  proba 
bly  unpopular  with  all,  because  in  it  lies  the  extra 
ordinary  success  of  our  General.  West  Point 
taught  him  more  than  West  Point  intended  to  teach. 
George  H.  Thomas  was  slow  of  study — all  thought 
ful  men  are ;  he  was  not  so  eager  to  possess  facts  as 
to  know  the  reasons  for  them,  and  as  facts  are 
abundant  and  of  easy  accumulation,  and  the  reasons 
are  few  and  obscure,  the  rapid  accumulators  of  the 
first  are  many,  and  the  philosopher  a  rare  excep 
tion. 

We  can  well  imagine  the  deep-eyed,  heavy-browed 
youth  investigating,  with  painful  care,  all  that  was 
presented  to  him  for  study  and  thereby  developing 
the  thought  processes  that  served  him  so  well  in 
after  life.  It  was  not  what  West  Point  taught  him, 
but  what  West  Point  failed  to  teach,  upon  which  he 
afterward  graduated  into  greatness.  The  defects 
of  the  school  first  called  his  attention  to  more  in 
our  military  system,  and  their  study  enabled  him, 
while  in  the  war,  to  call  order  out  of  chaos,  and 
create  an  army  that  was  irresistable  in  the  field. 


George  H.  Thomas.  183 

"The  success  of  an  army/7  lie  said  to  the  late 
President  Garfield,  after  the  war,  "  depends  more 
on  the  drill  and  discipline  of  the  men  than  on 
the  ability  of  their  officers.  Recognizing-  this,  I 
applied  myself  to  that  from  the  start.  What  is  the 
good  of  a  hundred  thousand  men  when  3Tou  can  fight 
only  a  thousand  ?  Owing  to  a  neglect  of  this  and  the 
lack  of  time  necessary  to  apply  the  remedy  we  fought 
the  late  war  with  brigades  and  not  with  armies,  and 
as  the  enemy  was  on  the  defensive  and  generally 
intrenched,  we  fought  at  a  loss." 

"  Again,"  he  said,  "the  brave  men  I  drilled  and 
cared  for,  the  men  whose  confidence  I  won,  made 
me  all  I  can  claim  to  be  as  a  commander." 

We  shall  see,  as  we  progress,  how  strikingly  true 
the  above  was,  barring  the  modesty  that  eliminated 
his  own  clear  intellect  and  force  of  character  from 
the  reasons  for  success. 

MEXICO. 

In  the  invasion  of  Mexico  Thomas  was  first  called 
upon  to  exercise  the  military  talent  that  his  self- 
teaching  at  West  Point  had  developed.  The  field 
afforded  the  young  lieutenant  of  artillery  was  not 
wide,  and  save  the  record  of  a  prompt  discharge  of 
duty,  and  quiet  coolness  under  fire,  there  is  nothing 
to  indicate  the  high  qualities  which  subsequently 
made  him  so  conspicuous.  He  seems  to  have  been 
of  the  command,  under  General  Taylor,  that  first 
occupied  the  soil  of  Texas,  and,  subordinate  to  Major 


184  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

Brown,  made  part  of  the  garrison  of  the  fort  oppo 
site  Matamoras  that  for  a  week  was  besieged  by  the 
Mexicans.  A  fearful  bombardment  of  five  days 
resulted  in  the  killing  of  Major  Brown  and  one 
private.  After  this  achievement  the  siege  was 
raised  in  consequence  of  victories  won  by  General 
Taylor  at  Palo  Alto  and  Kesaca  de  la  Palma. 

Subsequently,  in  the  battles  about  Monterey,  he 
was  brevetted  captain  for  "  gallant  and  meritorious 
services,"  and  one  General,  J.  P.  Henderson,  in  his 
enthusiasm,  goes  so  far  as  to  say,  after  compliment 
ing  young  Thomas  and  his  men  for  their  "bold 
advance,"  that  "when  ordered  to  retire  he  reloaded 
his  piece,  fired  a  farewell  shot  at  the  foe,  and  retired 
under  a  shower  of  bullets."  George  H.  Thomas  was 
a  young  man  at  the  time  when  this  extra  shot  was 
contributed  to  the  poor  Mexicans,  and  it  may  be  that 
for  once  in  his  life  he  exhibited  an  impulse  ever  after 
so  foreign  to  his  nature.  I  am  inclined  to  think, 
however,  that  the  noble  general  of  volunteers  drew 
on  his  imagination  for  this  one  act  of  unordered 
audacity.  The  fame  of  the  young  officer,  thus  made 
conspicuous  by  General  Henderson's  account  of 
"another  shot"  and  the  unpleasant  "shower  of 
bullets,"  reached  the  home  of  George,  and  the  citizens 
thereof  were  considerably  excited.  A  meeting  was 
called  at  Jerusalem  and  Captain  James  Magil  was 
selected  to  preside.  "  Colonel  Wm.  C.  Parker  rose," 
the  rural  press  of  that  locality  tells  us,  "  and  in  his 
naturally  eloquent  and  happy  style  proceeded  to 


George  H.  Thomas.  185 

deliver  a  spirit-stirring-  eulogy  upon  the  character 
and  conduct  of  our  hero."  He  then  proposed  "the 
following1  resolutions,  which  were  adopted  by  accla 
mation,"  and  are  so  dignified  and  forcible  that  I 
copy  them  entire : 

''Resolved,  That  whilst  we  glory  in  the  unfailing  fame  which 
our  heroic  army  in  Mexico  has  acquired  for  herself  and  coun 
try,  our  attention  has  been  especially  drawn  to  the  military 
skill,  bravery,  and  noble  deportment  of  our  fellow-countryman, 
George  H.  Thomas,  exhibited  in  the  campaign  of  Florida,  at 
Fort  Brown,  Monterey,  and  Buena  Vista,  in  which  he  has 
given  ample  proof  of  the  best  requisites  of  a  soldier — patience, 
fortitude,  firmness,  and  daring  intrepidity. 

"  Resolved,  That  as  a  testimonial  of  our  high  appreciation  of 
his  character  as  a  citizen  and  a  soldier,  we  will  present  to  him 

a  sword,  with  suitable  emblems  and  devices,  and  that  

be  appointed  a  committee  to  collect  a  sum  sufficient  for  the 
purpose,  and  cause  to  be  fabricated  a  sword  to  be  presented  to 
the  said  George  H.  Thomas  through  the  hands  of  his  noble  and 
heroic  commander,  Major-General  Z.  Taylor." 

THE  WAR  OF  SECESSION. 

Fourteen  years  after  this  presentation  of  a  fabri 
cated  sword  Thomas'  neighbors,  friends,  and  rela 
tives  were  startled  by  his  adhesion  to  the  cause  of 
the  Government  in  the  war  which  broke  with  such 
violence  upon  the  country.  Their  grief  was  only 
rivalled  by  their  wrath  and  indignation. 

Much  injustice  has  been  done  our  general  in  refer 
ence  to  this  act  by  both  friends  and  foes.  That  one 
should  charge  him  with  offering  his  sword  to  the 


186  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

Confederate  authorities  is  as  untrue  as  the  claimed 
fact  that  he  did  not  hesitate  as  to  his  course. 

Thomas  was  a  strange  compound.  He  had  not 
only  a  thoughtful  turn,  as  I  have  said,  but  with  this 
was  joined  a  promptness  of  action  that  seems  foreign, 
indeed  antagonistic,  to  that  quality.  With  great 
force  of  character  he  possessed  a  delicacy  of  organ 
ization  that  made  him  shrink,  like  a  girl,  from  either 
praise  or  blame.  While  governed  by  a  clear,  high 
sense  of  duty,  he  felt  keenly  all  the  affectionate  ties 
made  part  of  him  by  his  early  training  and  home 
associations.  That  he  fully  appreciated  the  painful 
embarrassment  forced  upon  him  by  cruel  events  may 
be  taken  for  granted.  His  education  at  West  Point 
afforded  him  no  guidance  and  gave  him  no  relief. 
West  Point  taught  everything  but  the  art  of  war  and 
patriotism.  In  its  adhesion  to  the  doctrine  of  blind 
obedience  to  orders  the  cadet  ceases  to  be  a  citizen 
without  becoming  a  soldier.  The  nice  distinctions 
every  voter  in  the  land  was  called  to  consider  be 
tween  the  old  colonial  doctrine  of  State  sovereignty 
and  the  power  of  the  General  Government  were  not 
included  in  the  academy's  curriculum.  Each  grad 
uate  was  left  to  judge  for  himself  between  the  blind 
obedience  to  orders  from  his  State  and  those  of  the 
General  Government. 

That  George  H.  Thomas  paused  in  painful  anx 
iety  between  his  duty  and  his  inclination  is  true,  for 
that  was  the  nature  of  the  man.  But  this  never 
extended  so  far  as  to  make  him  doubtful  as  to  the 


George  H.  Thomas.  187 

use  of  his  calling-.  He  could  still  continue  under 
the  command  of  his  Government,  or  he  could  resign 
and  return  to  private  life.  This  is  precisely  the  issue 
he  made  up  for  himself,  and  the  possible  resignation 
was  made  more  favorable  by  an  event  which  occurred 
about  this  time.  In  a  railroad  accident  he  received 
an  injury  to  his  spine  that  for  a  space  made  military 
duty  impossible.  The  effects  of  the  injury  accom 
panied  him  through  life  and  g'ave  rise  to  that  slow 
ness  of  motion  which  was  thought  by  the  ignorant  a 
part  of  his  character.  While  in  doubt  as  to  the  result 
of  his  injuries  he  was  looking*  about  for  some  means 
to  win  the  daily  bread  necessary  to  himself  and  the 
dear  woman  he  had  made  his  wife.  It  was  at  this 
time  that  he  wrote  the  following  letter  that  has  been 
made  the  basis  of  so  many  cruel  and  unjust  attacks  : 

Colonel  Francis  H.  Smith,  Supt.  Virginia  Military  Institute, 
Lexington,  Va. 

DEAR  SIR  :  In  looking  over  the  files  of  the  National  Intelli 
gencer  this  morning-,  I  met  with  your  advertisement  for  a 
commandant  of  cadets  and  instructor  at  the  institute.  If  not 
already  filled  I  will  be  under  obligations  if  you  will  inform  me 
what  salary  and  allowances  pertain  to  the  situation,  as  from 
present  appearances  I  fear  it  will  soon  be  necessary  for  me  to 
be  looking  up  some  means  of  support. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

GEO.  H.  THOMAS,  Major  U.  S.  Army. 

That  is  all.  He  was  "  looking  up  some  means  of 
support,"  and  the  means  contemplated  is  as  far  from 
any  tender  of  service  to  the  then  unformed  Confed 
erate  Government  as  an  offer  to  enter  the  ministry. 


188  Men  Who  Saved  tJte  Union. 

Thomas  possessed  in  himself  a  noiseless  machine 
that  consumed  its  own  smoke.  He  made  no  confes 
sions,  uttered  no  whining  complaints,  perpetrated 
no  egotistical  or  other  memoirs.  A  grand,  silent 
man,  he  left  his  deeds  to  speak  for  themselves,  and, 
with  impressive  dignity,  to  history  his  proudest  vin 
dication.  We  know  enough  of  him  now  to  realize 
that  wrhen  his  sense  of  duty  made  its  appeal  he 
responded  promptly  to  its  call,  regardless  of  the 
sacrifice  of  feeling  from  which  it  caused  him  to 
suffer. 

The  man  who  could  so  entirely  subjugate  his  hon 
orable  ambition  to  his  sense  of  justice  as  to  decline  a 
great  command  tendered  him  by  the  Government 
when  he  thought  such  acceptance  would  be  a  wrong 
to  a  brother  soldier,  was  not  the  man  to  play  fast 
and  loose  with  his  conscience  at  a  time  when  the 
Government  of  his  allegiance  was  in  peril.  The  fact 
that,  after  the  w^ar,  he  pronounced  the  charge  a 
falsehood  settles  the  matter  forever. 

We  are  yet  too  near  the  awful  conflict,  which 
shook  our  country  from  centre  to  circumference,  to 
deal  justly  with  either  the  men  or  the  events  of  that 
war.  Although  a  new  generation  is  here,  and  the 
men  who  grasped,  in  the  bitter  hate  of  a  death 
struggle,  at  each  other's  throats,  have  mainly  passed 
away,  and  new  men  are  taking  up  the  threads  of  life, 
the  inherited  feeling  is  yet  upon  us  so  potently  that 
it  is  difficult  to  render  justice  to  either  side. 

It  is  hard  for  us  to  realize  that  the  men  who  took 


George  II.  Thomas.  189 

up  arms  in  behalf  of  State  sovereignty  were  not  only 
earnest  but  honest.  We  forget,  or  fail  to  know,  that 
while  at  the  North  the  masses  had  passed  impercep 
tibly  from  the  ties  and  bondage  of  the  old  colonial 
idea  of  State  sovereignty  to  belief  in  our  fabric  as 
that  of  a  nation,  the  South,  with  its  sparse,  rural 
population,  mainly  a  mass  of  provincial  ignorance, 
held  to  the  colonial  idea  with  a  faith  and  pertinacity 
difficult  to  appreciate.  It  was  not  faith  alone,  it 
was  fanaticism.  "  Men  do  not  get  up  and  fight  over 
a  purely  mental  proposition,"  said  President  Lincoln. 
The  belief  born  with  them  through  many  generations 
was  so  strong  that  to  question  it  was  to  question 
their  sanity,  and  to  deprive  them  of  their  supposed 
right  by  force  was  regarded  as  a  wrong  to  be  resist 
ed  to  the  death.  So  strong  was  this  faith  that  the 
leaders  at  the  South  believed  that  secession  would 
be  accomplished  without  violence.  They  had  not 
only  their  own  people  to  build  on,  but  the  known 
sympathy  of  the  Democratic  party  at  the  North  and 
the  avowed  opinions  of  such  men  as  William  H. 
Seward,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Horace  Greeley,  and 
Edwin  M.  Stanton.  "Let  the  erring  sisters  depart 
in  peace,"  said  General  Win  Held  Scott,  and  the  sen 
timent  was  echoed  far  and  wide.  Had  not  this 
opinion  prevailed  the  result  might  have  been  differ 
ent  from  what  we  are  now  so  happy  to  chronicle. 
While  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  group  of  Southern 
leaders  were  calmly  waiting  for  Virginia  to  pass  her 
act  of  secession  our  National  capital  was  without  a 


190  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

garrison.  It  could  have  been  captured  and  held  by 
a  regiment  of  Virginia  militia. 

I  have  treated  of  this  at  some  length  because  of 
its  bearing  on  the  mind  of  George  H.  Thomas.  His 
thoughtful  intellect  and  studious  habits  forced  these 
considerations  upon  him.  He  could  not,  indeed,  have 
attempted  to  put  them  aside,  as  I  happen  well  to 
know.  I  first  made  his  personal  acquaintance  when, 
as  Judge  Advocate  of  the  so-called  Buell  Commis 
sion,  I  summoned  him  before  it.  His  cool,  quiet, 
incisive  statement  of  the  circumstances  and  situa 
tions  of  BuelPs  unfortunate  campaign,  the  first  and 
last  given  us,  won  my  admiration,  and  I  seized 
the  first  opportunity  after  the  war  to  cultivate 
an  intimacy.  This  occurred  at  Washington  while 
Thomas  wras  there  awaiting  a  command.  The  late 
President  Garfield,  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  the 
Nashville  hero,  accompanied  me  in  our  visits. 

George  H.  Thomas  to  a  casual  acquaintance  was 
not  a  pleasant  companion.  His  cold,  quiet  manner 
and  extreme  reticence  made  such  intercourse  exceed 
ingly  awkward.  His  deep,  thoughtful  eyes,  heavy 
brows,  and  firm  chin,  made  one  feel  as  if  he  were 
gazing  into  the  mouth  of  a  cannon,  and  the  cannon 
said  nothing. 

Few  men,  however,  could  resist  the  kindly,  persist 
ent  ways  of  Garfield.  He  soon  brought  Thomas 
out  in  his  real  characteristics,  and  we  were  delighted 
to  find  that  our  stern-appearing  hero  had  not  only 
the  modesty  of  a  girl,  but  the  simplicity  in  manners 


George  H.  Thomas.  191 

of  a  child.  He  talked  to  us  freely,  and  we  were  sur 
prised  to  find  that  all  the  delicate,  intricate  conditions 
presented  to  him,  when  called  on  to  act  between  his 
native  State  and  the  Government  he  had  sworn  to 
support,  had  been  ably  weighed  and  justly  decided. 

There  was  one  subject  from  which  he  shrunk  with 
an  innate  diffidence  he  could  not  conquer,  and  that 
was  any  reference  to  his  own  merits.  I  remember 
his  blushing-  embarrassment  at  the  praise  we  gave 
his  masterly  management  at  Nashville. 

"Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "you  award  me  more 
praise  than  I  deserve.  The  Government  at  Wash 
ington,  and  the  general  before  Richmond  could  not 
know  what  we  knew,  that  the  Confederate  Army 
was  demoralized,  and  that  the  longer  we  held  them 
at  bay  the  weaker  they  became.  While  we  in  Nash 
ville  were  comfortable,  sheltered,  well  fed,  and  gain 
ing  every  day  in  strength,  poor  Hood  and  his  rag 
ged,  badly-supplied  men  were  lying  out  on  the  bleak 
hills  about  the  place,  being  continually  thinned  out 
by  sickness  and  desertion." 

THOMAS  UNDER  PATTERSON. 

About  the  first  service  rendered  in  our  army  by 
the  then  Colonel  Thomas  is  singularly  illustrative  of 
his  high  sense  of  justice  and  his  courage.  He  was 
under  General  Patterson,  and  his  first  victory,  a 
small  affair,  was  rendered  significant  by  the  fact 
that  in  it  he  attacked  at  Falling- Waters  Thomas  J. 
Jackson,  and  so  the  subsequently-known  Stonewall 


192  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

Jackson  crossed  swords  with  the  afterwards  famous 
Rock  of  Chickamauga.  The  two  great  captains  of 
the  war  met  early  in  the  field,  and  each,  on  his  side, 
carried  to  his  grave  about  all  the  foundation  for 
true  hero-worship  to  which  the  war  of  arms  gave 
rise. 

Yet  it  is  not  of  this  that  I  wish  to  treat,  but  of 
Thomas'  subsequent  conduct  when  his  general  fell 
under  the  displeasure  of  both  Government  and  peo 
ple.  It  was  Patterson's  duty  to  hold  General  Joseph 
E.  Johnson's  forces  at  bay  while  General  McDowell 
fought  our  first  great  fight  at  Bull  Run.  This  Pat 
terson  failed  to  accomplish,  and  the  solemn  indigna 
tion  of  the  Government,  together  with  the  wrath  of 
the  people,  fairly  pulverized  the  poor  old  Pennsyl- 
vanian . 

It  was  aggravating.  I  made  one  of  the  unfortu 
nate  volunteers  in  that  tumultuous  combat  of  two 
armed  mobs,  that  fought  each  other  in  a  promiscuous 
manner  by  regiments  and  brigades  with  a  stunning 
noise  and  very  little  execution.  At  three  P.M.  of 
that  beautiful  Sunday,  the  conflict  hung  doubtful— 
that  is,  each  side  wras  in  doubt  as  to  which  should  run 
away — at  that  critical  moment  the  forces  under 
General  Joseph  E.  Johnson  appeared  with  loud  yells, 
and  we  immediately  advanced  on  Washington. 

Colonel  George  H.  Thomas  came  promptly  to  the 
defence  of  his  general.  It  was  a  gallant  act  and 
strictly  in  accord  with  the  character  of  a  noble  man. 
He  could  have  remained  silent.  He  was  a  subordi- 


George  H.  Thomas.  193 

nate  and  therefore  held  free  from  any  responsibility. 
Yet  although  General  Patterson  failed  to  act  upon 
the  suggestions  of  his  able  colonel,  Thomas  never 
theless  came  boldly  forward  in  a  vindication  of  the 
unfortunate  man. 

This  event  is  the  more  striking  to  me  because  of 
the  contrast  afforded  by  the  conduct  of  another 
eminent  officer  about  the  same  time. 

My  general,  Schenck,  had  been  ordered  by  Gen 
eral  McDowell,  in  establishing  Camp  Upton,  to 
throw  out  a  small  detachment  on  the  railroad  in  the 
direction  of  Vienna.  General  Schenck  not  only 
obeyed  instructions  to  the  letter,  but  accompanied 
the  regiment  detailed,  to  see  that  the  order  was 
properly  executed.  General  Schenck  availed  him 
self  of  the  railroad,  and  as  the  command  approached 
Vienna  it  was  fired  upon  by  a  section  of  artillery 
which,  by  some  accident,  happened  to  be  there. 
Ten  men  were  killed  and  the  little  command  thrown 
into  the  most  direful  disorder. 

The  storm  of  ridicule  and  condemnation  that  was 
poured  upon  the  head  of  my  general  has  no  parallel 
in  the  prolific  abuse  of  the  press.  One  looks  back  at 
it  now  with  amazement.  What  it  was  all  about, 
wherein  was  the  blame,  are  questions  which  no  man 
can  answer.  We  were  blind  worshippers  of  West 
Point  at  that  time,  and  one  sentence  from  General 
McDowell,  informing  the  non-combatants  of  the  press 
that  General  Schenck  had  merely  obeyed  orders, 
would  have  quieted  down  the  absurd  storm.  But 


194:  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

General  McDowell,  unlike  the  generous  Thomas, 
preserved  a  portentous  silence,  thus  indirectly  in 
dorsing-  the  abuse. 

The  time  came,  not  long  after,  when  General 
McDowell  needed  the  sort  of  defence  denied  Robert 
C.  Schenck.  Such  need  never  came  to  Thomas. 

DEFEAT   OF   ZOLLIKOFFER. 

George  H.  Thomas,  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
Brigadier-General  of  Volunteers,  was  ordered  to 
Kentucky  to  serve  under  Anderson  in  a  general 
conquest  of  territory.  It  was  the  mad  desire  of  the 
Administration  not  so  much  to  defeat  Confederate 
armies  as  to  conquer  territory.  It  could  not  com 
prehend  that  to  disperse  an  army  was  to  have  the 
territory  as  a  consequence. 

Thomas  was  not  impressed  with  this  territorial 
theory,  and  before  leaving  Washington  he  sug 
gested  the  plan  of  a  campaign  that,  if  successful, 
would  go  far  towards  crippling  the  Confederates 
in  their  stronghold.  It  was  to  invade  Tennessee 
through  Cumberland  Gap  and  not  only  occupy  a 
portion  of  the  county  disaffected  toward  secession, 
but  cut  one  of  the  railways  upon  which  the  Confed 
erate  Army  of  Virginia  depended  for  supplies. 

The  plan  was  favorably  considered  and  Thomas 
left  under  the  impression  that  he  would  be  employed 
to  aid,  at  least,  in  executing  the  strategic  move 
which  he  had  originated.  He  was  soon  taught  a 
different  lesson,  and  learned,  to  his  mortification, 


George  H.  Thomas.  195 

that  he  was  distrusted  by  the  authorities  at  Wash 
ington  as  a  loyal  soldier.  How  this  lack  of  confi 
dence  pained  him  we  can  well  understand,  and  how 
it  followed  him  to  the  end  of  his  career  history 
teaches  us. 

In  Kentucky  he  addressed  himself  to  the  work  he 
saw  necessary — a  work  which  from  that  time  out 
made  his  success  so  remarkable.  This  included  not 
only  the  drill  and  discipline  of  his  troops,  but  a  care 
of  them  that  made  him  quartermaster  and  commis 
sary  in  one  and  gained  for  him  not  only  an  efficient 
force,  but  a  love  that  found  expression  in  the  pet 
name  of  "  Pap  Thomas  "  that  was  his  to  the  end. 

While  thus  engaged  he  learned  that  with  his  plan 
of  campaign  accepted  another  general,  O.  M.  Mitch 
ell,  but  a  few  days  his  senior,  had  been  selected  to 
carry  it  into  effect.  This  General  Thomas,  whom 
General  Sherman,  in  his  memoirs,  assures  us,  with 
Sherman's  peculiar  self-complacency,  shrank  from 
an  independent  command — and  this  Badeau,  in  that 
work  of  fiction  known  as  "The  Military  Life  of 
Grant,"  reiterates — this  modest,  shrinking  officer 
immediately  protested  against  the  injustice  done 
him  and  asked  to  be  relieved  from  the  service 
ordered.  He  was  not  relieved,  but  his  campaign 
was  never  attempted. 

Operating,  as  our  forces  were,  in  an  enemy's 
country  it  was  difficult  for  an  ordinary  officer  to 
know  either  the  position  or  number  of  the  armies  op 
posed  to  him.  Every  native  felt  it  his  patriotic  duty 


196  .  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

to  deceive,  and  the  air  was  full  of  the  gravest  exag 
gerations  as  to  the  Confederate  numbers  and  intent. 

Thomas  was,  however,  no  ordinary  officer.  His 
cool,  clear  head  took  in  all  that  it  was  necessary  to 
know,  and  he  soon  satisfied  himself  that  if  the  Con 
federate  general,  Albert  Sidney  Johnson,  had  one- 
fourth  the  number  of  men  wild  rumor  gave  him  and 
Sherman,  Buell,  and  others  believed  him  to  have,  he 
would  not  be  acting  so  cautiously  on  the  defensive. 
The  South  never  suffered  from  a  lack  of  enterprise, 
and  during  the  game  of  brag  and  bluff  played  by  the 
Confederate  officers  with  so  much  success,  this  made 
them  not  only  accept  battle  when  offered,  but  take 
the  initiative,  and  attack  superior  numbers.  Facts 
developed  since  the  war  sustain  Thomas  in  his  first 
estimate,  for  we  have  learned  that  nearly  fifty  thou 
sand  men  undei;  Buell  were  held  in  check  by  less 
than  fourteen  thousand  under  Albert  Sidney  Johnson. 

The  difficulties  attending  an  advance,  however, 
were  of  a  sort  to  check  the  ardor  of  any  officer  who 
gave  thought  to  the  preparations  necessary  to  suc 
cess.  Raw  recruits  were  hurried  to  the  front  with 
out  necessaiy  supplies,  often  without  uniforms,  and 
sometimes  without  arms. 

George  H.  Thomas,  went  to  work,  with  indomi 
table  will,  as  I  have  said,  organizing  and  equip 
ping-  the  men  assigned  to  his  brigade.  He  was 
much  annoyed,  while  thus  engaged,  by  that  historical 
absurdity,  Andrew  Johnson,  who  insisted  upon  an 
immediate  invasion  of  East  Tennessee.  Thomas 


George  H.  Thomas.  197 

was  quite  as  willing-  to  march  in  that  direction,  but 
not  until  he  had  troops  and  supplies  sufficient  to 
make  the  move  promise  reasonable  success.  Thomas' 
indifference  to  the  interference  of  the  Tennessee 
Senator  did  not  serve  to  strengthen  confidence  in 
his  loyalty  at  Washington. 

The  work  he  accomplished  soon  told  for  itself  in  a 
victory  over  a  superior  force  led  by  Generals  Crit- 
tenden  and  Zollikoffer. 

The  long-continued  and  disastrous  defeats  inflicted 
by  the  Confederates  on  the  Union  forces,  with,  in 
almost  every  instance,  an  inferior  force,  had  widely 
dissimilar  effects  in  the  two  sections  of  country 
concerned.  While  the  heroic  qualities  of  our  North 
ern  people  aroused  them  to  more  vigorous  efforts, 
the  Confederates  at  the  South  were  made  over-con 
fident.  In  this  way  Zollikoffer  and  Crittenden, 
when  threatened  by  Thomas,  instead  of  remaining 
in  their  fortifications,  and  so  availing  themselves 
of  the  advantages  of  their  position,  moved  boldly 
out  and  challenged  our  general  to  a  fight  on  equal 
terms. 

Having  arrived  within  ten  miles  of  the  Confeder 
ate  fortifications  General  Thomas  halted  his  little 
army  to  enable  Schoeff  to  join  him  as  ordered.  His 
advanced  regiments  were  posted  on  the  roads  lead 
ing  to  the  enemy's  position  with  cavalry  and  infan 
try  pickets  thrown  well  to  the  front  to  guard 
against  surprise.  His  object  then  being  to  concen 
trate  his  forces  for  an  advance,  as  well  as  to  protect 


198  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

his  army  against  an  attack  should  the  Confederates 
venture  out  of  their  fortifications,  he  ordered  Gen 
eral  Schoeff  to  send  three  regiments  to  his  position 
and  awaited  their  arrival. 

The  Confederate  generals  moved  out  from  their 
fortifications  on  the  Cumberland  before  daylight 
January  19,  18G2,  expecting-  to  brush  aside  the 
picket  line  and  chase  an  armed  mob  from  the  field 
to  the  music  of  the  rebel  yell.  This  had  been  the 
order  of  battle  up  to  date.  Instead,  however,  of 
surprising1  the  Union  Army,  the}7  were  themselves 
surprised  to  find  a  strong,  well-posted  picket  line, 
that  fought  and  fell  back  so  slowly  and  obsti 
nately,  that  it  looked  for  awhile  as  if  the  battle  was 
to  be  fought  on  this  fringe- work  of  our  army,  and 
when  at  last,  they  succeeded  in  reaching  our  lines, 
the}7  were  received  and  treated  in  a  way  that 
silenced  the  rebel  yell  and  in  less  than  an  hour 
drove  them  from  the  field  in  disorder.  They  had 
encountered  a  novel  force  evolved  from  the  Napo 
leonic  brain  of  a  great  military  man  who  knew  how 
to  utilize  the  raw  material  found  in  a  heroic  race. 

The  result  of  this  victory,  both  North  and  South, 
was  as  startling  as  had  been  that  of  the  first  Bull 
Run.  The  Northern  heart  was  mightily  lifted  up, 
%vhile  at  the  South  there  was  a  corresponding  de 
pression.  This  last  came  from  a  strange  feeling 
which  spread  through  the  Confederacy  that  a  new 
element  has  entered  into  the  contest.  Before  that 
the  South  had  fought  from  positions  selected  by  its 


George  H.  Thomas.  199 

own  officers,  with  all  the  advantages  given  by  a 
defensive  line,  and  greatly  inferior  forces  had  won 
important  victories.  In  this  fight  the  forces  were 
equally  tested  in  a  fair  field,  with  no  advantage  to 
either,  and  the  Confederates  had  lost.  For  the  first 
time  they  came  in  contact  with  what  seemed  vet 
eran  soldiers,  and  instead  of  driving  a  mere  militia 
before  them  were  forced  to  retreat. 

This  was  the  first  battle  of  our  Civil  War  that 
was  not  a  casualty.  It  was  fought  on  a  plan  well 
matured  by  the  general  in  command,  and  a 
compact,  well-handled  force  carried  into  effect  the 
victory  that  had  been  organized  in  advance.  Vic 
tories  were  rare  at  the  time,  and  this  brilliant 
success  of  our  brave  fellows  and  their  able  com 
mander  stirred  the  hearts  of  the  people  into  renewed 
effort,  whilst  it  lifted  into  hope  the  despondent  Gov 
ernment  at  Washington.  Orders  of  congratulation 
fell  upon  the  army  in  thick  profusion,  but  in  none 
did  the  name  of  the  Virginian  who  won  the  victory 
appear.  For  such  service,  or  for  none  at  all,  officers 
of  small  calibre  were  lifted  into  responsible  posi 
tions.  But  this  name,  the  brighest  and  bravest  of 
all,  was  left  without  any  mention.  "  Let  the  Vir 
ginian  wait,"  said  the  President,  and  he  was  of  all 
men  the  one  to  wait.  Thomas  could  bide  his  time 
and  put  to  shame  the  men  who  abused  and  the  men 
who  doubted  him. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  his  plan  of  inva 
sion  through  Cumberland  Gap  was  not  attempted. 


200         -     Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

If  successful,  and  it  had  every  prospect  of  success, 
the  blow  struck  the  Confederacy  would  have  been 
well-nigh  fatal  to  it,  and  might  have  shortened  the 
war  in  the  West  by  at  least  two  years.  But 
Andrew  Johnson  became  eager  to  capture  Nashville 
and  use  an  army  of  a  hundred  thousand  men  to  hold 
his  Governorship  secure,  and  after  the  success  of 
Grant  at  Fort  Donelson  opened  the  way,  had 
sufficient  influence  to  attain  his  end.  The  Govern 
ment,  instead  of  striking  an  effective  blow  at  the 
enemy's  army,  went  into  the  profitless  business  of 
conquering  territory. 

Albert  Sidney  Johnson,  who  had  been  calling  fran 
tically  for  reinforcements  that  could  not  be  given 
him,  saw,  with  intense  satisfaction,  the  armies  of 
the  Union  move  off  in  a  vain  attempt  to  hold  a 
State  that  had  its  title  at  his  headquarters. 

UNDER   BUELL. 

General  Don  Carlos  Buell,  assigned  to  the  command 
of  the  Army  of  the  Ohio,  was  a  brave  gentleman  of 
clear,  cultivated  mind  and  soldierly  bearing.  He  had 
however,  two  fatal  defects  that  embarrassed  him  in 
all  his  campaigns  and  proved  his  ruin  in  the  end.  In 
the  first  place  he  labored  under  the  delusion  that,  in 
commissioning  him  to  command,  the  Government 
gave  him  an  army  as  well  as  commission.  His  second 
defect  was  his  infatuated  belief  that  war  is  a  science 
to  be  learned  from  books. 

A  genuine  soldier,  hoAvever,  he  obeyed  orders,  and 


George  H.  Thomas.  201 

when  directed  to  conquer  and  hold  Tennessee  so  that 
Andy  Johnson  could  develop  the  supposed  Union 
feeling*,  he  placed  the  War  Governor  in  possession  of 
Nashville,  and  spread  his  army  over  the  State  to 
keep  down  the  rebels,  or  rather  uphold  the  Union  sen 
timent. 

About  this  time  occurred  an  historical  episode 
that  the  pen  of  the  chronicler  cannot  treat  with  too 
much  consideration  and  dignity. 

The  great  Halleck,  West  Point's  proudest  product, 
left  the  War  Department  and  took  the  field  in  per 
son.  When  he  threw  the  weight  of  that  person,  and 
it  was  hefty,  into  the  scales  of  war,  the  scales 
trembled.  It  was  his  lofty  duty  to  repair  the  disas 
ter  at  Sh'iloh,  and  move  the  united  forces  of  various 
arms  and  armies  from  that  shameful  field  to  the 
supposed  objective  point  of  Corinth. 

As  the  camp  at  Sliiloh  had  been  carefully  pitched 
and  left  unprotected  in  order  to  invite  an  attack,  and 
make  a  surprise  possible,  so  that  thousands  of  poor 
fellows  were  slaughtered  while  arming,  and  those 
who  could  escape  were  driven  in  disorder  to  the  river, 
Halleck,  more  cautious,  moved  a  short  distance 
during  the  day  and  fortified  at  night.  The  enemy 
as  leisurely  fell  back,  and  as  leisurely  moved  his 
supplies,  so  that  the  embodied  art  of  war  found  no 
one  to  oppose  his  possession  of  the  sleepy  village  of 
Corinth. 

This  was  a  bloodless  affair,  without  results,  but 
having  accomplished  it  very  much,  in  conclusion,  as 


202  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

Sam  Weller  said  when  the  boy  mastered  the  alpha 
bet,  "  vether  it  was  vortli  while  to  go  so  far  for 
so  little  vasa  question  of  taste,"  the  great  Halleck 
withdrew  to  his  office  in  Washing-ton  and  gave  his 
ponderous  mind  to  meditation  and  potent  suggestion. 

He  accomplished  one  other  good  thing,  he  made 
George  H.  Thomas  a  major-general  and  gave  him 
the  position  Grant  would  have  held  but  for  that 
officer's  conduct  at  Shiloh. 

After  the  fall  of  Corinth  Thomas  asked  to  be 
relieved  from  his  command  of  the  right  wing  and 
reassigned  to  his  old  command  in  the  Army  of  the 
Ohio.  He  was  moved  to  this  by  two  considerations. 
His  generous  nature  would  not  permit  him  to  accept 
promotion  at  the  expense  of  a  brother  officer.  In  the 
second  place  he  sought  to  return  to  the  brave  men 
whose  confidence  he  had  gained,  and  whose  efficiency 
he  had  painfully  trained,  until,  under  all  circum 
stances,  they  stood  by  him  like  veterans.  With  these 
men  he  continued  throughout  the  war.  He  was 
wont  to  speak  of  them  with  an  enthusiasm  quite 
foreign  to  his  habit : 

"  The  bravest  fellows  and  the  finest  soldiers  in  the 
world."  He  said. 

There  is  no  question  but  that  the  rank  and  file 
called  from  civil  life  to  battle  for  our  Union  had  in 
them  the  making  of  the  best  troops  ever  put  under 
arms.  Young,  brave,  active,  intelligent,  it  only 
needed  a  little  instruction  to  make  them  all  that  a 
general  could  demand. 


George  H.  Thomas.  203 

The  trouble  with  us,  however,  was  that  these 
brave  men  had  no  instruction.  The  drill-sergeants 
of  West  Point  were  elevated  to  high  office.  They 
were  brigadier  and  major-generals,  and  were  too 
lofty  to  concern  themselves  about  the  only  thing 
they  were  competent  to  teach.  Now  the  importance 
of  drill,  as  taught  at  West  Point,  is  grossly  exagger 
ated,  the  larger  share  of  it  being  for  show  only,  but 
a  part  of  it  is  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  handling 
troops.  The  poor  men  got  it  neither  from  West 
Point  nor  from  their  elected  officers. 

The  measure  taken  by  the  men  who  made  up  our 
volunteer  army  of  the  officers  over  them  was  singu 
larly  accurate,  and  generally  openly  expressed  in 
good-natured  contempt  or  rough  admiration.  It 
was  from  this  intuitive  knowledge  of  human  nature 
that  General  Thomas  so  soon  obtained  the  loving 
confidence  of  his  troops.  He  was  careful  to  cut 
down  the  drill  to  what  was  actually  necessary,  and 
while  kind  and  considerate  in  looking  after  the  com 
fort  of  his  men  he  was  yet  the  strictest  of  disciplina 
rians.  Always  grave,  dignified,  and  reserved,  he 
yet  invited  confidence  by  his  untiring  attention  to 
the  needs  of  those  dependent  upon  him. 

Buell's  campaign  in  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  was 
about  as  forlorn  a  failure  as  any  that  disgraced  our 
armies  in  the  war,  but  this  was  no  fault  of  Buell's. 
His  one  great  duty,  after  keeping  Andrew  Johnson 
in  possession  of  the  War  Governorship  of  Tennessee, 
was  to  keep  open  his  line  of  communications  to 


xlOJ:  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

Louisville,  Kentucky.  With  John  Morgan  in  his 
rear  this  was  no  easy  task.  That  enterprising-  officer 
tore  up  the  railroad  on  which  Buell  depended  for 
supplies  as  rapidly  as  twenty-five  or  thirty  thousand 
men  could  relay  it. 

He  was  in  this  condition  when  Kirby  Smith  in 
vaded  Kentucky  and  Braxton  Bragg  crossed  the 
Tennessee  River  at  Chattanooga  to  march  north 
ward  and  form  a  junction  with  Smith.  While 
Bragg  executed  this  daring  march,  cutting  loose 
from  his  base  of  supplies  and  living  on  the  country 
Buell  gathered  together  his  eighty-two  thousand  and 
fell  back  on  Louisville,  where  his  command  was 
augmented  to  a  hundred  thousand. 

The  Government,  alarmed  and  discouraged  at  this 
extraordinary  operation,  relieved  Buell  and  tendered 
the  command  to  Thomas.  Here  again  was  an  act 
on  the  part  of  Thomas  that  convinced  his  associates 
and  the  authorities  at  Washington  that  he  distrusted 
himself  to  such  an  extent  that  he  could  not  be  forced 
into  a  command  involving  a  heavy  responsibility. 

It  does  seem  strange,  looking  back,  as  I  do,  at  the 
feverish  ambition,  the  miserable  jealousies,  the  low 
intrigues  which  shamed  our  armies,  that  one  man 
can  be  found,  so  possessed  of  genuine  manhood  as  to 
be  above  all  this  selfish  greed  for  office.  Of  course 
rank  meant  power — power  in  its  possessor  to  prove 
the  value  of  his  work  in  a  field  where  the  destinies 
of  the  Republic  hung  doubtful  on  bloody  results 
and  the  eyes  of  the  world  were  upon  the  men  en- 


George  H.  Thomas.  205 

gaged  in  the  conflict.  No  man  felt  this  more  keenly 
or  was  more  hurt  when  slighted  than  George  H. 
Thomas,  but  his  sense  of  justice  and  honor  held  his 
ambition  in  check,  and  he  sleeps  beneath  his  honored 
name,  that  name  itself  an  epitaph  of  praise  that 
Shakespeare's  pen  could  not  embellish. 

The  Government  did  not  press  the  command  upon 
our  great  soldier,  and  Buell,  in  return  for  this  gen 
erous  conduct,  made  him  second  in  authority,  but 
failed  to  give  him  anything  to  command. 

The  trouble  with  Buell  I  have  stated  before,  and  it 
resulted  necessarily  in  his  consulting  no  one,  and 
sharing  110  responsibility  with  his  subordinate. 

When,  therefore,  the  army  was  offered  Thomas 
he  was  forced  to  say  that,  although  next  in  rank 
to  Buell,  he  knew  so  little  of  the  Army  of  the  Ohio 
that  he  could  not  well  take  command  at  an  hour 
when  its  general  was  about  to  fight  a  great  battle. 

The  great  battle  was  fought.  It  occurred  near 
Perryville,  Kentucky,  occupied  two  hours,  was 
fought  and  finished  without  the  knowledge  of  Buell 
and  with  no  one  on  the  field  authorized  to  take  com 
mand  in  his  absence. 

It  was  on  the  7th  of  October  that  Buell  put  his 
forces  in  line  of  battle  and  announcing  his  intent  to 
light  the  next  day  retired  to  his  headquarters  four 
miles  in  the  rear  of  the  centre.  As  he  had  not 
consulted  Bragg  as  to  the  time  of  the  engagement 
there  was  some  confusion  occasioned  by  his  throwing 
three  divisions  on  the  Union  left  wing.  This  at  first 


206  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

seems  a  bold  move  on  the  part  of  the  Confederates, 
but  a  study  of  the  front  presented  by  our  army 
shows  the  attack  not  to  have  been  so  desperate 
after  all.  The  assault  was  made  on  the  left  of  our 
army  commanded  by  General  McCook,  and  as  the 
troops  formed  on  his  right  had  moved  away,  there 
was  an  opening-  between  McCook  and  Rosseau,  of 
which  two  divisions  of  the  Confederates  took  advan 
tage,  and  hurrying  in,  turned  their  backs  on  six 
divisions  of  our  army,  and  wiped  McCook's  com 
mand  from  the  field.  This  extraordinary  fight, 
which  went  on  with  the  utmost  f uiy  for  two  hours, 
was  in  sight  of  our  centre,  and  in  hearing  of  our 
right,  and  neither  centre  nor  rig-lit  moved  to  assist 
their  overpressed  comrades.  Had  General  Thomas, 
then  at  the  extreme  right,  been  empowered  to  act, 
he  would  have  been  along  the  whole  line,  and  when 
the  desperate  attack  was  made  could  have  swung 
around  that  line  and  caught  the  furious  Confederates 
in  their  own  trap.  Unfortunately  he  was  not  in 
command,  and  so,  in  those  two  hours,  the  enemy  left 
dead  upon  the  field  eight  hundred  and  fifty-one  of 
our  men  with  two  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
thirty-one  wounded.  It  was  one  of  the  bloodiest 
affairs  of  the  war  and,  with  the  exception  of  Shiloh, 
the  most  shameful. 

UNDER  ROSECRANS. 

Buell  w^as  relieved  of  his  command,  and  Thomas 
should  have  succeeded   him.     They  who  assert  so 


George  H.  Thomas.  207 

positively  that  self-distrust  restrained  this  ablest 
officer  of  them  all  from  accepting-  the  post  to  which 
he  was  entitled,  should  know  the  chagrin  he  suffered 
when  the  position  was  given  to  Rosecrans.  He  pro 
tested,  and  that  my  readers  may  appreciate  his  feel 
ings,  I  give  the  protest  in  full.  Here  it  is,  addressed 
to  General  Halleck : 

"Soon  after  coming  to  Kentucky  I  urged  on  the  Gov 
ernment  to  send  me  twenty  thousand  men  properly  equipped 
to  take  the  field,  that  I  might  at  least  make  the  attempt  to 
take  Kiiox ville  and  secure  East  Tennessee.  My  suggestions 
were  not  listened  to,  but  were  even  passed  by  in  silence. 
But  without  boasting,  I  believe  that  I  have  exhibited  at 
least  sufficient  energy  to  show  that  if  I  had  been  intrusted 
with  that  expedition  at  that  time  (fall  of  1881),  I  might  have 
conducted  it  successfully.  Before  Corinth  I  was  intrusted 
with  the  command  of  the  right  wing,  or  Army  of  the 
Tennessee.  I  feel  confident  that  I  did  my  duty  patriotically 
and  with  a  considerable  amount  of  credit  to  myself.  As 
soon  as  the  emergency  was  over  I  was  relieved  and  ordered 
to  the  command  of  my  old  division.  I  went  to  my  duties 
without  a  murmur,  as  I  am  neither  ambitious  nor  have  I 
any  political  aspirations.  On  the  30th  of  September  I  re 
ceived  an  order  through  your  aid,  Colonel  McKibben,  plac 
ing  me  in  command  of  the  Department  of  Ohio,  and  direct 
ing  General  Buell  to  turn  over  the  command  of  his  troops 
to  me.  This  order  came  just  as  General  Buell  had,  by  ex 
traordinary  efforts,  prepared  his  army  to  pursue  and  drive 
the  rebels  from  Kentucky.  Feeling  that  a  great  injustice 
would  be  done  him  if  not  permitted  to  carry  out  his  plans, 
and  that  I  would  be  placed  in  a  situation  to  be  disgraced, 
I  requested  that  he  might  be  retained  in  command.  The 
order  relieving  him  was  suspended,  but  to-day  I  find  him 
relieved  by  General  Rosecrans,  my  junior,  although  I  do 


208  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

not  feel  conscious  that  any  just  cause  exists  for  overslaugh 
ing  me  by  placing  me  under  my  junior,  and  I,  therefore, 
am  deeply  mortified  and  grieved  at  the  course  taken  in  this 
matter." 

General  William  S.  Rosecrans  is  a  man  of  genius, 
who  looks  to  large  results  with  a  healthy  contempt 
for  all  details.  Could  "  Old  Rosy,"  as  he  was  called 
by  his  troops,  be  put  in  command  of  a  well-drilled 
and  disciplined  army,  well  supplied,  and  ready  to 
march,  he  would  plan  you  a  magnificent  campaign 
and  fight  it  out  to  victory.  But  no  such  army  pre 
sented  itself,  and  the  man  who  planned  campaigns 
had  to  make  one,  and  put  in  all  his  sleepless  nights 
and  laborious  days  to  a  work  which,  in  other  lands, 
is  done  by  his  subordinates  and  the  Government. 

Rosecrans  was  unfortunate  in  being  promoted 
against  the  wishes  and  protests  of  Stanton  and 
Halleck.  He  was  selected  by  Salmon  P.  Chase  and 
President  Lincoln.  I  have  given  the  details  of  this 
selection  elsewhere,  and  I  learned  from  it  that 
Edwin  M.  Stanton,  with  all  his  patriotism,  force  of 
character,  and  fine  intellect,  was  not  a  just  man 
where  his  feelings  got  the  better  of  his  judgment. 

General  Thomas,  as  we  have  seen,  protested 
against  the  assignment  of  Rosecrans  to  the  com 
mand  on  the  ground,  not  only  of  service,  but  of 
seniority,  yet  when  he  learned  that  Rosecrans' 
commission  antedated  his  own  he  submitted  to  the 
wrong  done  him. 

There  was,  however,  in   this  a  trick,  which   one 


George  H.  Thomas.  209 

finds  difficult  to  comprehend  as  having-  been  per 
petrated  by  the  Government  at  Washing-ton.  Rose- 
crans'  commission  as  Major-General  of  Volunteers 
was  issued  August  16,  1862.  This  made  him  the 
junior  not  only  of  General  Thomas,  but  of  McCook 
and  Crittenden.  To  obviate  this  awkward  state  of 
affairs,  the  date  of  Rosecrans'  commission  was 
changed  to  March  21,  1862.  Now,  as  the  President 
had,  under  the  law,  a  right  to  assign  to  duty  without 
regard  to  the  traditions  and  practices  of  the  regular 
army,  one  fails  to  understand  the  reason  for  this 
clumsy  attempt  at  concealment,  which  amounted,  in 
fact,  to  forgery. 

When  Thomas  learned  the  fact,  he  said  :  "I  have 
made  my  last  protest  while  the  war  lasts.  You  may 
put  a  stick  over  me  if  you  choose  to  do  so ;  I  will 
take  care,  however,  to  so  manage  my  command, 
whatever  it  may  be,  that  it  shall  not  be  involved  in 
the  mistakes  of  the  '  stick.' ' 

From  that  time  out  to  the  end  of  the  war,  no 
more  protests  or  complaints  went  up  from  the  great 
soldier. 

General  Rosecrans  offered  to  continue  Thomas  in 
his  honorary  position  as  second  in  command.  But 
our  general  had  realized  too  clearly  the  absurdity  of 
this,  and,  declining  it,  he  was  assigned  the  command 
of  the  centre  composed  of  four  divisions,  the  right 
was  given  to  Major-General  McCook,  and  the  left 
to  Major-General  Crittenden. 

General  Thomas  was  anxious  to  put  in  operation 


210  Men  Wlio  Saved  the  Union. 

his  old  plan  of  invasion  through  Cumberland  Gap, 
and  so  cut  the  enenry's  great  line  of  supply.  Rose- 
crans  did  not  approve.  He  entertained  the  infatua 
tion  of  the  politicians,  that  it  was  territory  for  which 
he  was  fighting- ;  and  so  moved  on  to  Nashville  to 
regain  Tennessee. 

There  was  much  talk  over  and  high  consideration 
given  the  loyal  citizens.  I  once,  on  an  occasion 
previous  to  this  campaign,  accompanied  Generals 
Rosecrans  and  Schenck  to  see  President  Lincoln 
concerning  the  Io3ral  citizens  of  West  Virginia, 
where  we  had  seen  some  hard  service.  I  sat  silent 
until  Rosecrans  had  about  exhausted  the  subject, 
when  the  President  turned  abruptly  to  me,  and 
asked  what  I  knew  about  the  people  of  West 
Virginia. 

"  Well,  Mr.  President,"  I  replied,  •"  there  are  two 
sorts  of  people  in  West  Virginia,  as  General  Rose 
crans  says ;  they  are  the  disloyal  and  the  loyal.  The 
difference  between  them  is  this  :  The  disloyal  man 
shoulders  his  musket  and  goes  out  to  fight;  the 
loyal  man  remains  at  home  to  hide  behind  laurel 
bushes  and  shoot  us  for  our  boots.'1 

Great  injustice  has  been  done  General  Rosecrans. 
He  was  the  beau-ideal  of  a  soldier— brave,  dashing, 
self-confident,  and  full  of  resource.  As  I  have  said, 
had  he  been  put  in  command  of  veterans,  well  dis 
ciplined,  armed  and  provisioned,  he  would  have 
fought  his  way  to  Richmond.  This  sort  of  man, 
however,  lacks  organizing  ability  ;  and  to  mould  new 


George  H.  Thomas.  211 

recruits  into  efficient  soldiers  as  Thomas  did — to 
bring-  a  department  through  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  detail  and  choice  of  subordinates  up  to  a  smoothly 
working  machine  were  tasks  quite  beyond  him. 

He  did  not,  in  this  respect,  differ  from  his  associates 
in  arms  with  the  exception  of  Thomas.  McClellan, 
for  example,  has  gone  into  history  as  a  great  organ 
izer.  He  kept  an  immense  force  about  Washington 
for  nearly  a  year.  He  certainly  got  his  men  into 
white  cotton  gloves,  and  perfected  his  reviews  to 
such  extent  that  they  were  imposing.  But  he  kept 
his  raw  recruits  raw  recruits  all  the  same  under  the 
one  general  order,  "  Avoid  engagements."  With  the 
Confederate  flag  waving  its  insults  on  Munson's  Hill, 
he  trained  his  troops  into  a  strange  awe  of  the  enemy, 
when  by  continuous  skirmishing  he  could  have  ac 
customed  them  to  a  service  that  is  the  only  one 
in  which  to  make  the  soldier. 

Rosecrans  began  with  the  old  cry  to  the  W^ar 
Department  for  troops  and  supplies.  Instead  of 
moving  at  once  against  Bragg,  he  delayed  at  Nash 
ville  to  repair  railroads  and  restock  depots,  and  he 
got,  in  return  for  his  efforts,  scant  support,  and 
no  sympathy  from  that  Department.  The  line  of 
railroad  from  Louisville  to  Nashville  called  for  more 
men  to  protect  and  keep  it  in  running  order  than 
all  of  Tennessee  was  worth. 

Thomas  asked  only  for  a  column  of  twenty  thou 
sand  men  to  penetrate  to  the  heart  of  the  Confederacy 
through  Cumberland  Gap  and  Knoxville,  but  this 


212  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

plan  was  put  aside  to  conquer  territory  in  Tennessee, 
and  give  the  loyal  element  the  blessing-  of  Andrew 
Johnson  as  Governor  at  Nashville. 

THOMAS    AT    STONE    RIVER. 

On  the  28th  of  December,  1862,  Rosecrans  moved 
out  in  the  direction  of  Murfreesboro.  Major-General 
McCook  was  in  command  of  the  right,  Thomas  of 
the  centre,  and  Crittenden  of  the  left.  Marching  on 
parallel  roads  the  entire  command  came,  on  Dec. 
30th,  abreast  on  the  banks  of  Stone  River,  in  front 
of  Bragg  ?s  army  holding  Murfreesboro.  Rosecrans 
had  an  idea,  as  on  many  such  occasions,  that  the 
enemy  was  in  full  retreat,  and  to  hurry  him  on  he 
ordered  Crittenden  forward  across  the  river.  This 
gallant  officer  soon  discovered  that,  instead  of  re 
treating,  the  enemy  was  there  in  full  force,  strongly 
posted  and  evidently  disposed  to  dispute  every  foot 
of  ground  he  occupied.  The  hasty  withdrawal  of 
Crittenden's  forces  transferred  the  idea  of  the  enemy's 
retreat  from  Rosecrans'  brain  to  that  of  Bragg,  and 
the  plucky  Confederate  changed  his  purpose  from  a 
defensive  battle  to  one  of  attack. 

The  story  of  the  battle  which  followed  can  be  told 
in  few  words. 

The  enemy,  crossing  the  river,  fell  in  such  force 
upon  Rosecrans'  right  that  McCook's  command  was 
doubled  up  and  driven,  in  wild  confusion  and  with 
great  loss,  upon  Thomas  holding  the  centre.  Our 
able  general  and  his  gallant  troops  not  only  held 


George  H.  Thomas.  213 

their  own,  but  changed  front  and  shifted  position,  in 
the  face  of  a  victorious  foe,  with  such  cool  precision, 
that  they  held  the  field.  Failing-  to  break  the  centre 
and  so  perfect  his  victory,  Bragg1  shifted  his  forces 
from  our  right  to  the  left,  and  made  a  desperate 
effort  to  double  that  back  as  he  had  McCook's  com 
mand.  Failing-  in  this  he  abandoned  the  offensive, 
and  at  night  occupied  his  old  position  of  the  morning. 
Such  was  the  condition  when  the  conflict  ended  for 
the  day.  It  proved  the  cool  courage  and  staying 
powers  of  the  troops  under  Thomas,  and  to  these 
qualities  may  be  attributed  the  fact  that  our  army 
was  not  defeated  and  driven  back  in  disorder  upon 
Nashville.  As  it  was  it  was  so  shattered  that  Rose- 
crans  called  a  council  of  war  to  determine  the  neces 
sary  moves  to  secure  a  safe  retreat.  That  such  retreat 
was  not  resorted  to,  and  that  our  forces  were  held  on 
the  field  until  victory,  a  great  victory,  was  awarded 
us,  came,  it  is  said,  from  two  odd  circumstances  :  At 
the  council  of  war,  held  that  evening,  a  fierce  discus 
sion  arose  as  to  the  necessity  of  a  retreat.  In  this  dis 
cussion  General  Thomas  took  no  part.  Indeed,  worn 
out  by  the  fatigue  of  a  terrible  day,  he  settled  back 
in  a  corner  and  fell  asleep.  Being  awakened  to  give 
his  opinion,  he  merely  said,  "  This  army  cannot  re 
treat,"  and  again  fell  asleep.  About  midnight, 
after  the  council  had  adjourned,  Rosecrans,  ac 
companied  by  McCook,  rode  to  the  rear  to  select  a 
new  position  for  the  next  day's  struggle.  On  the 
banks  of  a  small  creek  two  miles  toward  Nashville 


214  Men  W ho  Saved  the  Union. 

General  Rosecrans  observed  a  line  of  fires,  built, 
contrary  to  orders,  by  his  own  wagoners,  and 
jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  these  were  the  fires  of 
the  enemy.  "The  enemy  are  in  our  rear,"  he  said, 
and  attributed  Thomas'  oracular  utterance  to  a 
knowledge  of  the  fact.  So  riding  back  at  a  gallop 
to  where  his  officers  were  still  assembled  he  an 
nounced  that  "we  must  fight  or  surrender." 

The  two  armies  seem  to  have  been  equally  demor 
alized  by  the  fierce  struggle  of  the  30th,  for  they  lay 
in  sight  of  each  other  for  two  days  without  either 
making  an  effort  to  renew  the  fierce  conflict.  I  have 
no  doubt  that,  if  the  truth  were  known,  Bragg  had 
under  consideration  the  propriety  of  a  retreat,  at 
the  very  time  when  Rosecrans  was  consulting  his 
subordinates  on  the  necessity  of  falling  back. 

As  it  was,  Colonel  John  F.  Miller  led  some  regi 
ments  of  Negley's  division,  without  orders  from  his 
immediate  commander,  and  in  violation  of  one 
from  another  general  of  division,  and,  attacking  the 
Confederates  under  General  Breckenridge,  drove 
them,  in  a  brilliant  charge,  from  a  position  which 
proved  to  be  the  key  of  the  situation.  Bragg,  who  had 
changed  his  plan  from  offensive  to  defensive  oper 
ations,  saw  that  his  position  was  no  longer  tenable, 
and  so,  acknowledging  defeat,  retired  at  night-fall, 
leaving  his  dead  and  wounded  behind  him,  but  get 
ting  away  with  his  material  in  a  manner  that  should 
not  have  been  permitted. 

This  victory  confounded    Rosecrans'  enemies    at 


George  H.  Thomas.  215 

Washington  and  carried  him  to  the  top  crest  of 
favor  in  the  popular  mind.  But  the  fact  is  none  the 
less  clear  that  he  owed  his  success  to  the  able  subor 
dinate,  who  in  this  instance,  as  in  all  others  where 
he  took  part,  won  the  victory  from  an  acknowledged 
defeat.  The  silent  soldier,  who  carried  so  unpretend 
ingly  the  brains  of  a  great  commander,  saw,  without 
complaint,  the  credit  of  this  noble  work  given  to  an 
other.  He  was  of  too  large  a  nature  to  be  troubled 
with  jealousy,  even  when  he  saw  the  laurels  which  he 
had  justly  gained  made  a  present  to  his  inferior. 

For  six  months  following  this  victory  Rosecrans 
remained  at  Murfreesboro,  not  idle,  for  he  had  his 
men  building  fortifications  and  bridges,  repairing 
railroads  and  striving  to  get  the  necessary  supplies 
for  a  forward  movement.  The  glow  of  his  achieve 
ments  died  out  in  the  delay,  and  the  authorities  at 
Washington,  while  denying  him  men  and  material 
liberally  given  to  other  commanders,  grew  clamor 
ous  in  their  demands  for  immediate  action. 

It  was  while  lying  here  that  General  Thomas,  in 
common  with  other  officers,  asked  for  a  brief  leave 
of  absence  to  visit  his  family.  It  was  granted,  but, 
upon  second  thought,  our  general  concluded  not  to 
avail  himself  of  the  favor  and  so  remained.  He 
never  solicited  or  received  another,  nor  lost  a  day 
from  duty  during  the  entire  war.  The  general  used 
to  tell,  in  this  connection,  and  in  great  glee,  of  a 
soldier  who  approached  him  one  day  with  a  request 
for  a  furlough, 


216  Men  Who  Saved  ihe  Union. 

"  I  don't  know,  my  man/'  he  replied,  "  that  I  can 
spare  you.  Suppose  an  ugly  fight  were  to  come  off 
in  your  absence,  what  would  I  do  ?  " 

"  Don't  think,  general,  I  have  much  prospect  of  a 
fight  round  here.  Besides  I  ain't  seen  my  woman 
for  nigh  onto  eight  months." 

"Oh,  that's  nothing-,  my  good  fellow,"  said 
General  Thomas,  "  I  have  not  seen  my  wife  for  two 
years." 

The  man  looked  at  his  commander  with  a  queer 
squint,  and  as  he  transferred  his  quid  from  one  side 
of  his  mouth  to  the  other,  said :  "  You  ain't !  Well, 
general,  I  ain't  one  of  that  sort." 

TULLAHOMA   CAMPAIGN. 

After  his  defeat  at  Stone  River  Bragg  fell  back, 
selecting  a  strong  position  between  Shelbyville  and 
Wartrace,  north  of  Duck  River,  intending  at  that 
point  to  resist  the  further  advance  of  Rosecrans 
toward  Chattanooga.  Rosecrans  found  his  position 
so  strongly  fortified  by  nature  as  well  as  by  art,  that 
an  attack  in  front  might  prove  disastrous,  and  he  did 
what  had  been  much  talked  of  before  in  the  war,  but 
never  executed.  Whilst  making  a  heavy  demonstra 
tion  against  the  right  of  Bragg's  front  he  ordered  a 
flank  movement  with  the  main  body  of  his  army 
which  rendered  the  Confederate  position  untenable, 
and  drove  Bragg  with  all  his  forces  back  over  the 
Tennessee  River  into  Chattanooga.  In  all  this 
admirably  executed  plan,  General  Thomas  led  the 


George  II.  Thomas.  217 

flunking-  force  and  to  his  skill  and  energy  and  the 
endurance  of  the  men  we  owe  the  success  of  the 
movement. 

The  weather  was  exceedingly  inclement,  the  rain 
fell  incessantly,  and  the  roads  over  which  they  had 
to  march  would  have  been  to  any  other  army  impas 
sable.  We  may  appreciate  this  when  we  recollect 
that  a  certain  historical  dark  night  is  held  to  be  a 
reasonable  excuse  on  the  part  of  an  eminent  gen 
eral  for  not  obeying  orders  when  his  march  was 
held  to  be  of  vital  importance  to  the  army  under 
General  Pope. 

The  Government  at  Washington  did  not  seem  to 
appreciate  this  great  and  almost  bloodless  victory, 
and  immediately  assailed  General  Rosecrans  with 
orders  to  move  forward  without  delay,  and  regard 
less  of  the  obstacles  in  his  front.  To  do  this  was 
simply  impossible.  Every  victory  achieved  by  any 
commander  on  this  line  was  followed  by  a  return  of 
the  army  to  the  work  of  rebuilding  railroads  and 
accumulating  supplies.  As  it  required  at  least  one- 
fourth  of  Rosecrans'  forces  to  keep  open  the  roads 
after  rebuilding  them,  it  was  impossible  to  comply 
with  these  demands  from  Washington  until  sufficient 
supplies  were  gathered  together  to  make  the  move 
ment  reasonably  safe. 

The  writer  hereof  knows  something  of  this  from 
experience.  The  day  after  Rosecrans  moved  out  of 
Nashville,  the  so-called  Buell  Commission  or  Court  of 
Inquiry  left  the  same  place  for  Louisville.  I  was  the 


218  Men  Wlio  Saved  the  Union. 

Judge  Advocate  and  the  duty  of  finding-  transporta 
tion  for  the  honorable  court  devolved  upon  me.  I 
found  that  in  one  day  almost  the  whole  railroad  had 
been  destroyed  by  John  Morgan  and  his  merry  men, 
from  within  a  few  miles  of  Nashville  to  the  Ohio 
River.  The  perils  of  that  trip  remain  vividly 
imprinted  upon  my  memory.  The  escape  from  cap 
ture  by  \vandering  bands  of  guerillas  were  many  and 
almost  miraculous.  How  we  trudged  on  foot, 
travelled  in  wagons,  turned  hand-cars  on  pieces  of 
road  that  remained  intact,  would  make  a  volume 
about  as  interesting  as  a  romance.  In  twenty -four 
hours  the  railroad  as  a  means  of  transportation  had 
ceased  to  exist. 

Before  Rosecrans  could  loosen  his  hold  upon  this 
railroad,  he  had  to  transport  his  supplies,  and  fetch 
up  his  troops,  and,  in  addition  to  this,  knowing  that 
our  animals  would  have  to  be  foraged  off  the  country, 
the  general  had  to  wait  until  the  growing  corn  was 
sufficiently  matured  to  afford  a  supply.  Of  course 
this  called  for  a  long  and,  to  the  authorities  in 
Washington,  exasperating  delay.  It  was  claimed 
that  while  Rosecrans  remained  idle  the  armies  to  the 
right  and  left  of  him  were  in  danger,  as  the  Confeder 
ates  were  at  liberty  to  draw  for  reinforcements  on 
the  forces  in  front  of  him.  The  telegraph  lines, 
when  left  unbroken,  were  employed,  almost  con 
tinually,  in  conveying  peremptory  orders  which  had 
in  them  as  little  sympathy  as  knowledge  of  the  situ 
ation  and  common-sense. 


George  H.  Thomas.  219 

Chattanooga  was  not  only  the  gateway  to  the 
South,  but  it  covered  and  held  secure  one  of  the  main 
lines  of  transportation  upon  which  the  Confederate 
Army  in  front  of  Richmond  depended  for  its  rein 
forcements  and  supplies.  The  wild,  picturesque 
beauty  of  the  place  had  been  moulded  by  nature 
into  a  great  fortification.  It  lies  upon  the  left  bank 
of  the  Tennessee,  which  river  is  itself  impassable 
when  guarded  by  almost  any  force,  while  Lookout 
Mountain  that  towers  upon  the  southwest  rises  in 
a  perpendicular  precipice  almost  from  the  water's 
edge.  To  the  east  rises  the  lofty  Missionary  Ridge, 
running  almost  parallel  with  the  Tennessee  from 
Chattanooga  valley  to  Chickamauga  Creek,  well- 
nigh  as  impassable  in  the  face  of  an  enemy  as  the 
river  itself. 

Now  from  Lookout  Mountain  southwest  for  eighty 
miles  the  continuous  crests  of  the  Sand  Mountains 
present  an  almost  unbroken  palisade.  Stretching 
from  Chattanooga  northeastwardly  are  other 
ranges  of  mountains,  so  that  flanked  on  both  sides 
there  seems  to  be  built  by  nature  almost  impregna 
ble  barriers  against  an  invading  army.  Into  this 
stronghold  Bragg  withdrew  his  forces,  fully  im 
pressed  with  the  belief  that  he  was  at  last  secure 
from  the  Union  Ariiry. 

Rosecrans  knew  that  it  would  be  impossible  to 
disturb  the  enemy  by  wray  of  his  front.  He  therefore 
tried  upon  Bragg  precisely  the  same  strategy  that 
had  driven  him  from  Duck  River.  This  time,  how- 


Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

ever,  it  was  upon  a  much  larger  scale  and  so  auda 
cious  in  execution  that  the  Confederate  general  had 
no  suspicion  of  what  was  in  store  for  him. 

Sending1  a  portion  of  Crittenden's  corps,  number 
ing  seven  thousand  men,  under  the  gallant  Hazen, 
over  the  mountains,  Rosecrans  made  sufficient  dem 
onstration  in  front  to  occupy  the  attention  of  Gen 
eral  Bragg,  while  he  advanced  his  entire  army  to 
Bridgeport,  Stevenson,  and  vicinities,  southwest  of 
Chattanooga.  This  done  with  great  skill,  he  passed 
the  river,  and  crossed  rapidly  over  Sand  Mountain, 
his  troops  making  roads  as  they  went,  into  Lookout 
Valley,  and  posted  his  army,  the  left  resting  at 
Wauhatchie,  seven  miles  from  Chattanooga,  and  his 
right  at  Valley  Head,  thirty-five  miles  distant,  the 
whole  facing  Lookout  Mountain  and  threatening 
Bragg's  line  of  communications,  and  in  this  way 
completely  turning  the  flank  of  the  famous  fortifica 
tions. 

The  first  news  that  the  astonished  Confederate 
general  had  of  the  situation  was  that  a  large  force 
of  all  arms  was  menacing  his  line  of  communica 
tions  toward  Dalton.  He  hastily  evacuated  Chatta 
nooga,  as  he  claims,  for  the  purpose  of  protecting 
his  line,  and  of  taking  our  army  in  detail  as  its  three 
corps  crossed  the  mountains  and  appeared  in  the 
valleys  beyond.  If  this  latter  was  any  part  of  his 
design  it  was  never  executed.  He  posted  his  army 
from  Lee  and  Gordon's  Mills  to  Lafayette,  facing  the 
passes  of  Pigeon  Mountain,  intending,  as  he  says,  to 


George  H.  Thomas.  2;>1 

strike  the  head  of  Rosecrans'  column  as  it  debouched 
into  the  valley.  His  opportunity  to  accomplish  this 
was  greatly  strengthened  by  the  conduct  of  Gener 
al  Alec.  McDowel  McCook,  commanding  the  right 
wing  of  the  Union  Army.  This  officer  having,  after 
a  deal  of  labor  and  pains,  scaled  the  mountains, 
seems  to  have  instinctively  divined  Bragg's  inten 
tion,  for  instead  of  moving  to  the  left  up  the  Broom 
Town  Valley  and  joining  his  forces  to  the  centre 
under  Thomas,  which  he  could  have  done  in  a  day, 
not  only  came  to  a  halt  and  lost  two  days  consider 
ing  what  he  should  do  next,  but  then  marched  back 
over  the  mountains  and  lost  several  more  days  get 
ting  to  Thomas'  rear. 

Believing  that  Bragg  wras  in  full  retreat,  and 
urged  on  from  Washington,  where  the  same  impres 
sion  prevailed,  Rosecrans  ordered  a  general  and 
rapid  pursuit.  Against  this  General  Thomas  earn 
estly  remonstrated.  He  urged  upon  General  Rose- 
crans  to  abandon  the  idea  of  the  pursuit  of  an  eiien^ 
the  nature  and  extent  of  whose  movements  he  had 
no  means  of  knowing.  He  advised  Rosecrans  to 
secure  the  fruits  of  his  brilliant  strategy,  establish  a 
new  base  of  supplies  at  Chattanooga,  rest  his  army, 
well-nigh  exhausted  by  continuous  labor,  perfect  his 
communications  with  the  rear,  and  replenish  his 
stores.  He  could  then  move  out  against  Bragg 
with  assurance  of  securing  the  results  of  a  victorj-, 
should  he  gain  one. 

But  this  was  precisely  what  was  not  tolerated  at 


222  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

the  impatient  War  Department  in  any  of  the  several 
armies  of  the  United  States.  Rosecrans'  delay  had 
come  to  be  a  by-word  and  source  of  abuse.  His 
order  to  pursue  Bragg-  was  both  unfortunate  and 
fortunate.  It  prevented  his  holding1  Chattanooga 
with  his  line  of  supplies  open,  but  it  sent  Crittenden 
out  of  Chattanooga  upon  Bragg's  right  and  rear 
and  awakened  that  officer  to  the  fact  that  he  had 
better  be  taking*  care  of  himself  instead  of  trying-  to 
attack  Rosecrans'  army  corps  in  detail. 

Thomas'  caution  and  g-ood  sense  saved  the  army 
from  utter  ruin.  Instead  of  pushing-  on  in  rapid 
pursuit,  he  moved  so  slowly  that  when  his  advance 
division  came  in  contact  with  Bragg's  army  he  had 
the  right  and  left  wings  of  the  Union  forces  in  sup 
porting  distance. 

CHICKAMAUGA. 

On  the  19th  of  September,  1863,  the  two  armies  en 
countered  each  other  in  a  blind  sort  of  a  way  in  the 
midst  of  a  dense  forest  on  Chickamauga  Creek.  The 
nature  of  the  country  prevented  any  accurate  esti 
mate  of  numbers  or  position  of  opposing-  forces  until 
the  same  were  developed  by  hard  fighting. 

General  Thomas  commanded  our  forces  on  the 
line,  and  when  night  came,  putting  an  end  to  the 
first  day's  conflict,  it  found  a  drawn  battle  with  ter 
rific  slaughter,  but  in  which  neither  side  had  gained 
any  apparent  advantage. 

Night,   falling  upon  forest  and  broken  openings 


George  II.  Thomas.  223 

strewn  thick  with  dead  and  d3ring,  found  both 
armies  fearfully  shattered  from  the  desperate  strug 
gle,  but  each  confronting-  the  other  determined  to 
renew  the  conflict  with  the  early  dawn.  The  relative 
conditions  of  the  armies  on  the  second  day  were 
materially  changed  from  those  of  the  first.  Nearly 
every  brigade  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  had 
been  hotly  engaged,  while  one  division  of  Bragg's 
army  had  not  been  at  all,  and  two  others  but 
slightly  under  fire.  During  the  night  General 
Longstreet  arrived  with  a  reinforcement  of  veterans 
from  Lee's  army.  This  threw  the  weight  of  num 
bers  and  fresh  troops  on  the  side  of  the  Confederate 
commander,  and  he  moved  his  whole  army  to  the 
west  bank  of  the  Chickamauga,  assigned  Generals 
Polk  and  Longstreet  to  the  command  of  his  right  and 
left  wings,  and  ordered  General  Polk  to  begin  the 
attack  in  force  against  the  left  wing  of  the  National 
Army  at  daybreak. 

In  the  meantime,  as  the  firing  of  the  first  clay's 
battle  ceased,  General  Thomas  selected  a  new  posi 
tion  and  posted  the  five  divisions  he  had  commanded 
during  the  day  so  as  to  offer  a  strong  and  compact 
front  to  the  expected  assault. 

General  Rosecrans,  after  a  council  of  war  with 
his  general  officers,  directed  the  withdrawal  of 
McCook's  and  Crittenden's  corps  from  the  positions 
held  during  the  day.  Two  of  McCook's  divisions 
were  posted  on  the  right  of  Thomas,  two  of  Critten 
den's  stationed  in  reserve  on  the  slopes  of  Missionary 


224  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

Ridge,  and  another  division  [Negley's  of  his  own 
corps]  was  promised  to  Thomas  to  cover  his  left 
flank. 

During1  the  night  the  National  Army  was  on  the 
march  filing  into  position,  and  covering  their  front 
with  fortifications  rudely  constructed  of  logs  and 
rails.  Then,  this  done,  amid  the  gloomy  darkness 
of  the  dense  forest,  and  in  grim  silence,  broken  only 
by  the  cries  of  the  wounded,  it  awaited  the  day  and 
the  fierce  onset  of  the  enemy. 

But  one  brigade  of  the  promised  division  reached 
Thomas'  left,  and  this  furnished  only  a  weak,  thin 
line  to  secure  his  exposed  flank. 

As  the  day  advanced  and  the  thick  mist  which 
obscured  the  battlefield  lifted,  fresh  divisions  of 
Breckenridge  and  the  veteran  troops  of  Cleburne 
assaulted  Thomas'  left  in  a  furious  charge.  Upon 
the  steadiness  of  the  troops  holding  this  flank 
depended  the  safety  of  the  Union  Army.  Again  and 
again  Bragg  threw  his  gallant  men  upon  Thomas' 
line  only  to  bo  driven  back  with  great  loss.  In 
charge  and  counter-charge  the  contending  lines 
swayed  back  and  forth,  but,  despite  the  tremendous 
efforts  of  the  Confederates,  the  divisions  of  Thomas 
stood  firm  and  unbroken.  The  Confederate  lines 
overlapped  those  of  the  Union  Arm}7,  but  such  was 
the  slaughter— General  Cleburne  losing  five  hun 
dred  in  a  few  minutes  and  one  of  Breckenridge 's 
brigades  being  literally  swept  from  the  field  by  the 
Union  fire — the  Confederates  did  not  dare  to  swing 


George  H.  Thomas.  225 

their  forces  into  Thomas'  rear.  The  furious  assault 
swept  down  the  line  from  left  to  right  and  on 
Thomas'  front  was  repulsed  at  every  point. 

But  on  the  right  of  the  army  there  was  no  Thom 
as,  and  when  Longs  treet,  with  his  splendid  veterans, 
moved  to  the  attack,  instead  of  finding  a  strongly 
posted  compact  line  of  battle  to  contest  his  advance, 
he  met  only  disconnected  fragments  of  a  line,  sta 
tioned  with  flanks  exposed,  or  columns  in  motion 
changing  position  under  blind  orders  blindly  obeyed. 
These  he  swept  before  him  as  a  tempest  drives  the 
leaves.  McCook's  divisions,  though  fighting  desper 
ately  at  great  disadvantage,  and  without  hope,  were 
hurled  headlong  from  the  field.  Crittenden's  corps 
was  involved  in  the  rout  and  the  whole  right  and 
reserve  of  the  army  crushed  and  rolled  in  a  confused 
mass  of  struggling  humanity  to  the  rear.  The 
artillery  of  these  corps,  unable  to  manoeuvre  in  the 
thick  forest,  and  over  the  broken  ground,  and 
deprived  of  infantry  support,  was  captured,  or  rush 
ing  madly  in  flight  doubled  the  "  confusion,  havoc, 
and  dismay." 

The  commanding  general,  believing  all  lost,  has 
tened  from  the  field  to  Chattanooga  to  save  what 
he  could  from  what  he  believed  to  be  overwhelming 
disaster,  and  was  followed  by  two  of  his  corps  com 
manders  and  the  routed  portion  of  their  forces. 

This  left  Thomas  and  the  five  divisions  under  his 
immediate  command,  aided  by  such  fragments  of  the 
routed  right  as,  gifted  with  undaunted  courage,  and 


226  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

moved  by  a  noble  patriotism,  reported  to  him  for 
duty,  notably  General  Hazen,  who  moved  in  with 
his  brigade  from  Palmer's  division  of  Crittenden's 
routed  corps.  With  these  from  noon  to  night  he 
confronted  the  whole  Confederate  Army  full  of 
enthusiasm  and  confident  of  victory.  Here  he  richly 
earned  the  gratitude  of  the  nation  and  the  title  of 
the  Rock  of  Chickamauga. 

I  cannot  go  into  the  details  of  this  tremendous 
struggle  when  assault  after  assault  was  repulsed, 
when  with  both  flanks  turned  and  columns  of  the 
enemy  in  the  rear,  with  ammunition  almost  ex 
hausted,  this  splendid  soldier  and  his  unflinching 
men  held  their  position  and  forced  back  the  charging 
Confederates  with  awful  slaughter.  Troops  were 
moved  from  left  to  right  and  from  right  to  left,  or 
faced  to  the  rear  as  the  overwhelming  numbers  of 
the  enemy  bore  down  upon  them,  and,  without  a 
thought  of  yielding,  this  last  hope  of  the  Union 
Army  fought  on,  waiting1  for  night  or  death.  At 
last  the  enemy,  calling  up  all  remaining  reserves, 
gathered  for  one  final  and  desperate  attempt  to 
break  these  unyielding  lines.  Down  upon  flanks  and 
rear  they  came  in  one  great  enveloping  stream  of 
fire  and  death.  It  was  Bragg's  last  and  crowning 
effort,  and  upon  its  failure  or  success  hung  the  fate 
of  an  army  and  the  future  of  a  nation. 

As  I  have  said,  General  Rosecrans,  whose  head 
quarters  were  on  the  extreme  right,  seeing  the  terri 
ble  rout,  hurried  from  the  field  to  Chattanooga.  He 


George  H.  Thomas.  227 

had  but  one  thought,  and  that  was  to  prepare  the 
pontoons  over  the  Tennessee  in  order  to  save  what 
he  could  of  his  shattered  army. 

As  General  Rosecrans  and  his  chief  of  staff  rode 
to  the  rear,  amid  the  mass  of  our  panic-stricken 
men,  wounded  soldiers  on  foot  and  in  ambulances, 
riderless  horses,  hurrying-  wagons  the  teams  lashed 
on  by  panic-stricken  drivers,  and  all  the  evidences  of 
a  frightful  rout,  the  roar  of  a  deadly  conflict  was 
heard  on  the  right  of  their  line  of  retreat.  What 
could  this  protracted  struggle,  under  such  circum 
stances,  mean  ?  was  the  question  that  puzzled  the 
chief  of  staff,  General  Garfield,  and  at  his  own  sug 
gestion  he  parted  from  his  general  and  rode  to  the 
front. 

How  common  it  is,  when  considering  the  vicissi 
tudes  of  life,  to  find  some  pivotal  point  upon  which 
seems  to  turn  the  destiny  of  a  fortunate  or  unfortu 
nate  career.  Thus,  had  Rosecrans  sent  his  chief  of 
staff  to  look  after  that  pontoon  bridge,  and  gone 
himself  to  the  front,  he  could  have  rallied  Critten- 
den's  retreating  reserve  on  Rossville,  and,  strength 
ening  Thomas'  left  wing,  would,  undoubtedly,  have 
driven  the  almost  exhausted  Confederates  from  the 
field.  We  have  had  many  disquisitions  on  this,  but 
these  philosophers  forget  that  had  Rosecrans  acted 
other  than  he  did  he  would  not  have  been  Rosecrans. 
From  the  time  of  his  birth  until  this  fatal  day  at 
Chickamauga  his  individuality  had  been  forming  for 
just  such  an  emergency  as  this.  Brutus  lingered,  in 


228  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

doubt,  at  home  on  the  morning  of  Caesar's  assassin 
ation, 

When  Rome's  proud  fortune  trembled  on 

A  dagger's  point. 

We  speculate  upon  an  if,  and  on  a  future  built  on  a 
moment's  delay,  but  we  do  not  see  that  through  gen 
erations  of  men,  the  blood  of  despotism  and  the  blood 
of  assassination  ran  slowly,  converging  to  a  point 
where  the  two  streams  met,  and  that  the  meeting  and 
its  consequences  were  as  much  links  in  the  chain  of 
events  as  the  more  commonplace  occurrences  of  life. 

The  turning-point  in  this  gallant  soldier's  career 
was  no  more  on  that  road  to  Chattanooga,  nor  as 
much,  as  in  his  infatuated  selection  of  Alec  McCook 
to  command  the  right  wing  of  the  Arir^  of  the  Cum 
berland.  I  make  no  pretension  to  an  extraordinary 
knowledge  of  human  nature.  Having  discovered  at 
an  early  day  that  I  did  not  know  myself  I  dropped 
all  pretensions  to  an  intuitive  knowledge  of  other 
men.  But  the  protracted  investigation  of  Buell's 
brilliant  but  unfortunate  military  career  brought 
Alec  McCook  vividly  to  view,  and  the  night  before 
Rosecrans  moved  out  of  Nashville  on  the  campaign 
which  ended  so  disastrously  to  him  at  Chickarnauga 
I  earnestly  protested  against  his  trust  in  McCook. 
Rosecrans  is  a  frank,  brave,  truthful  soldier,  a  lov 
able  man,  and  having  served  under  him  in  Virginia 
I  could  not  refrain  from  taking  this  liberty  with 
two  friends,  for  Alec  McCook  is  one  I  number  in 
this  list. 


George  H.  Thomas.  229 

Immediately  after  the  battle  of  Chickamauga, 
General  Garfield  passed  through  Baltimore  on  his 
way  to  Washing-ton  as  a  member-elect  of  Congress. 
The  Hon.  Henry  Winter  Davis  gave  him  a  dinner, 
to  which  General  Schenck  and  stalf  were  invited. 
In  eloquent  utterances,  and  with  earnest  manner, 
Garfield  told  that  dinner-party  the  story  of  the 
battle. 

"It  was  not  a  defeat,"  he  said,  "but  a  great 
victory,  only  we  at  headquarters  did  not  know  it. 
It  was  about  three  in  the  afternoon,  when  riding 
with  General  Rosecrans  toward  Chattanooga,  that 
the  continuous  roar  of  a  battle  on  the  centre  and 
left,  struck  us  as  indicating  an  obstinate  defence  and 
I  suggested  the  propriety  of  my  riding  back  and 
ascertaining  the  exact  condition  of  affairs  on 
Thomas'  front.  Receiving  assent  to  this,  I  turned 
and  made  my  way,  as  best  I  could,  in  the  direction 
of  the  conflict.  It  was  no  easy  matter ;  the  road 
was  crowded  with  fugitives,  men,  ambulances,  and 
wagons,  all  bent  each  on  getting  ahead  of  the  other 
out  of  the  way  of  the  yelling  rebels.  No  one  inex 
perienced  in  such  a  rout  can  conceive  of  the  disor 
ganization  and  wild  dismay  of  such  a  mass.  I  suc 
ceeded  at  last,  and  I  shall  never  forget  my  amaze 
ment  and  admiration  when  I  beheld  that  grand 
officer  holding  his  own  with  utter  defeat  on  each 
side  and  such  wild  disorder  in  his  rear.  He  had 
the  moment  before  repulsed  a  terrific  assault,  and 
his  unmoved  line  of  bronzed  veterans  stood  Toy  their 


230  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

guns  as  grim  and  silent  as  a  line  of  rock.  Thomas' 
greeting  to  me  was  as  quiet  as  if  on  parade,  and,  on 
my  asking  him  as  to  the  situation,  he  replied : 

"  '  We  have  repulsed  every  attack  so  far,  and  can 
hold  our  ground  if  the  enemy  can  be  kept  from  our 
rear.' 

"  He  had  scarcely  uttered  these  words  wrhen  the 
head  of  a  column  appeared  on  our  left  as  we  faced  to 
the  rear.  It  came  rapidly,  the  men  yelling  and  firing 
as  they  marched ;  and  for  a  few  painful  moments 
we  were  in  doubt  whether  they  were  friends  or  foes. 
The  doubt  was  dispelled  by  the  appearance  of  men 
on  the  right  who  seemed  to  rise  from  the  ground. 
They  came  at  double  time,  and  we  could  see  and  hear 
the  officers  cheering  them  on.  It  was  dear  old 
General  Steadman  coming  to  our  rescue.  They 
came  in  column,  formed  into  line,  and  advanced 
firing.  We  saw  the  enemy  hesitate,  waver,  fall 
back,  and  disappear,  as  at  the  same  moment  a 
terrific  assault  was  made  on  our  front.  This,  too, 
was  repulsed  and  again  there  came  the  deadly  lull, 
harder  to  bear  than  active  fighting,  for  knowing 
our  isolated  position,  one  felt  there  was  no  telling 
from  what  quarter  the  next  attack  would  be  made. 
As  to  this  anxiety  I  speak  for  myself,  my  heart  was 
in  my  mouth,  but  for  Thomas,  from  first  to  last 
he  stood  unmoved,  receiving  reports  and  giving 
orders,  as  if  the  situation  were  not  utterly  desperate. 
Once  only  he  exhibited  any  feeling.  We  were 
moving  along  the  line  to  encourage  the  men  and 


George  II.  Thomas.  231 

to  make  inquiry  regarding  the  ammunition,  when 
Thomas  approached  a  man  whose  coolness  and 
courage  he  had  noticed,  and  shaking  the  brave 
fellow's  hand,  thanked  him  for  his  gallant  conduct. 
The  man  stood  embarrassed  for  a  second,  and  then 
exclaimed  : 

"  '  General  Thomas  shook  that  hand,  if  any  fellow 
ever  tries  to  take  it  I'll  knock  him  down.' ' 

From  that  hour  until  night  this  short  line  of  twen 
ty-five  thousand  men  held  the  field  against  the  en 
tire  rebel  army  and  then  fell  back  in  good  order  to 
Chattanooga. 

Pap  Thomas,  from  that  out,  became  in  the  hearts 
and  mouths  of  the  men  the  Rock  of  Chickamauga. 
That  rock  is  his  pedestal  of  honor,  and  so  long  as  the 
memory  of  the  terrible  conflict  which  cemented  in 
blood  our  people  as  a  nation  remains,  that  monu 
ment  will  grow  clearer  and  brighter  against  its 
background  of  war-clouds,  and  the  able,  grand,  si 
lent,  untainted  man  will  be  fairly  worshipped  when 
the  little  tin  gods  now  rattled  about  among  the 
groundlings  are  forgotten. 

"  I  will  leave  it  to  history  to  do  me  justice,"  he  said, 
and  the  slow  moving  hand  of  the  impartial  chron 
icler  is  at  work.  History  is  generally  the  crystalliza 
tion  of  popular  beliefs.  "  It  is, ' '  said  the  great  Napo 
leon,  "the  facts  agreed  on."  If  these,  the  popular 
beliefs  and  facts  agreed  on,  were  to  be  settled  by  the 
partisans  who  rule  to-day,  Thomas  would  have  but 
scant  justice,  as  little  after  death  as  they  accorded  him 


232  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

in  life.  He  won  his  laurels  on  the  blunders  of  the 
men  who  are  the  heroes  of  the  hour,  and  they  can  be 
recognized  only  in  obscuring  him.  Fortunately  these 
noisy  worshippers  make  but  a  part  of  the  American 
nation,  while  amid  the  English-speaking  people,  of 
which  these  blind  devotees  are  a  small  minority, 
history  will  speak,  and  the  history  to  which  he 
appealed  will  do  his  memory  justice. 

AT  LAST  IN   COMMAND. 

The  immediate  displacement  of  Rosecrans  was 
as  unjust  as  the  manner  of  doing-  it  was  brutal. 

All  our  popular  generals,  save  one,  rose  to  emi 
nence  on  the  bodies  of  the  brave  fellows  their  blun 
ders  sacrificed.  Had  the  same  justice  been  rendered 
them  that  was  shot  at  the  head  of  Rosecrans  by  tele 
graph,  Grant  and  Sherman  would  have  terminated 
their  military  careers  at  Shiloh.  We  learned  war 
from  defeat,  and  made  generals  out  of  our  disasters. 
Indeed  up  to  this  time  Rosecrans  had  won  more 
fights  and  suffered  fewer  defeats  than  his  rivals 
who  did  not  hesitate  to  sit  in  judgment  on  him, 
and  join  his  vindictive  enemy  of  the  War  Depart 
ment  in  howling  him  down.  * 

To  this  course  there  was  one  exception.  Thomas 
had  put  himself  on  record  as  opposing  and  protest 
ing  against  the  one  move  that  culminated  in  the  ruin 
of  his  general.  His  kindness  of  heart,  and  love 
for  his  profession,  and  his  high  sense  of  honor  re 
belled  against  the  injustice  done  General  Rosecrans 


George  H.  Thomas.  233 

and  the  brutality  of  its  execution.  He  refused  to 
accept  the  command  tendered,  and  when,  at  last, 
it  was  forced  upon  him  he  made  his  first  act  an 
expression  of  admiration  for,  and  confidence  in,  his 
late  commander.  This  was  in  accepting-  Rosecrans' 
first  move  on  falling-  back  to  Chattanooga,  and  not 
only  proceeding  to  put  it  in  execution,  but  giving-  his 
late  general  full  credit  for  its  ingenious  inception. 

Under  cover  of  Thomas'  invincibles  the  army  \vas 
once  more  in  Chattanooga,  and  the  first  vital  ques 
tion  that  demanded  solution  from  the  brain  of  the 
commander  was  how  to  keep  the  troops  supplied. 
The  only  line  left  open  was  a  mountain  road  sixty 
miles  in  length,  so  wretchedly  bad  that  horses  and 
mules  fell  exhausted  and  died  by  the  hundreds. 

The  great  War  Secretary  had  roared  so  wrathf ul- 
ly  and  loud  over  Rosecrans'  blunders  that  a  panic 
existed  at  Washington,  and  at  the  headquarters  of 
our  Virginia  Army,  lest  Rosecrans  should  evacuate 
Chattanooga  and  run  away.  The  man  who  had  been 
trusted  in  the  most  perilous  and  important  enter 
prises,  who  had  scored  more  victories  to  his  credit 
than  any  other  officer  in  the  field,  that  this  man 
would  lose  both  head  and  heart  was  not  supposable, 
and  that  Edwin  M.  Stanton  entertained  such  an  idea, 
only  proves  that  when  he  became  blind  through  prej 
udice  and  passion  he  was  stone  blind.  Under  the 
impulse  thus  given,  General  Grant  telegraphed 
Thomas  : 

"  Hold  Chattanooga  at  all  hazards." 


234  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

The  response  was  characteristic  ;  it  read: 
"We  will  hold  the  town  till  we  starve." 

In  this  Thomas  spoke  for  the  brave  men  under  his 
command.  He  had  mingled  with  them,  shared  their 
blankets  and  rations,  had  studied  their  nature,  and 
knew  that  they  would  stand  by  him  unflinching-  under 
the  fires  of  hell,  and,  if  so  ordered,  would  eat  their 
own  shoes  before  surrendering.  How  he  loATed  those 
men  !  In  the  grand  review,  at  Washington,  after 
the  war,  when  his  bronzed  veterans  swung  by  this 
silent  man,  who  so  controlled  his  emotions  that  in 
the  hour  of  deadly  peril  he  appeared  quiet  and  self- 
composed  as  when  on  parade,  he  said,  through  a 
mist  of  tears,  "  They  made  me."  Modest  to  the  last, 
he  did  not  add,  as  he  might  have  done,  "  And  I  made 
them."  Taking  the  raw  recruits,  as  he  told  the 
writer  of  this,  "  The  best  material  on  earth,"  he  not 
only  moulded  it  into  soldierly  efficiency,  but  infused 
into  the  ranks  his  own  heroic  qualities  that  made  his 
men  like  the  Old  Guard  of  Napoleon,  the  terror  of 
a  continent. 

How  to  save  that  ariiry,  shut  up  in  Chattanooga, 
from  starvation  taxed  the  brain  of  the  great  coin" 
mander. 

General  Longstreet,  after  the  battle  of  Chattanoo 
ga,  suggested  to  General  Bragg  that  they  should 
cross  the  Tennessee  River  east  of  Chattanooga,  and 
by  operating  northward  force  Rosecrans  to  fall  back 
on  Nashville.  After  that  to  follow  the  railroad  to 


George  H.  Thomas.  '235 

Knoxville,  defeat  Burnside,  and  then  from  that 
point  move  on  our  army  in  Middle  Tennessee. 

Looking-  back  now,  one  sees  clearly  that  this  was 
the  thing  to  do.  But  Braxton  Bragg-  was  not  equal 
to  the  emergency.  He  lost  the  fruits  of  his  victory 
in  an  attempt  to  besiege  Chattanooga.  He  left  out 
the  important  facts  that  Hooker  held  the  line  of  sup 
plies,  and  Thomas  was  in  command  of  the  army  he 
proposed  starving.  From  Stone  River,  where  he 
experienced  the  fighting  qualities  of  our  men  under 
Thomas,  he  seems  to  have  lost  all  the  enterprise  and 
dash  that  distinguished  him  in  cutting  loose  from  his 
base  of  supplies,  and  with  an  inferior  army  forcing 
Buell  back  on  the  Ohio  and  defeating  us  at  Perry ville. 

Now  when  General  Rosecrans  fell  back  from  the 
battlefield  of  Chickamauga  to  Chattanooga  he  found 
Loofvout  Valley  and  all  the  south  side  of  the  river  in 
possession  of  the  Confederates,  cutting  off  the  availa 
ble  lines  of  supplies,  and  the  problem  presented  the 
Government  general,  as  I  have  said,  was  how  to 
save  his  army  from  starvation. 

General  Rosecrans,  a  man  of  genius,  solved  the 
problem,  and,  strange  to  say,  with  ease.  Succes's  in 
the  field  depends  greatly  in  doing  the  unexpected. 
There  is  a  mystery  in  the  unknown,  as  General  Wm. 
Preston,  of  Kentucky,  said  to  me  once,  that  is  terror, 
and  makes  the  wild  elephant  fly  from  the  first  man  it 
encounters.  What  Rosecrans  proposed  could  have 
been  easily  defeated  had  Bragg  been  aware  of  his 
design.  One  brigade  in  a  movement  that  would 


236  Hen  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

have  taken  not  more  than  twenty  minutes  could 
have  rendered  the  execution  of  the  plan  impossible. 
But  Bragg  encountered  the  unexpected  and  failed. 

Before  old  Rosey  could  put  his  plan  in  operation 
he  was  superseded  by  General  Thomas  and  General 
Thomas  found  himself  under  the  orders  of  Grant, 
who,  in  the  panic  developed  at  the  War  Department 
by  Secretary  Stanton,  had  hurried  to  Chattanooga. 
It  appeared  at  one  time  that  the  entire  Government 
would  migrate  to  that  stronghold .  The  War  Depa  rt- 
ment  got  as  far  as  Louisville,  moved  by  its  wild  fear, 
not  of  Bragg,  but  of  Rosecrans. 

General  Grant  accepted  the  proposed  plan.  He 
had  his  choice  between  that  and  starvation.  It  was 
a  simple  affair,  but  daring  as  it  was  simple,  and 
consisted  merely  in  dropping  a  force  down  the  river, 
after  night,  in  boats  of  a  pontoon  bridge  to  be  thrown 
across  the  stream  at  Brown's  Ferry.  Now  from 
Moccasin  Point  to  the  ferry  in  question,  a  distance  of 
nearly  three  miles,  the  enemy  had  their  picket  posts 
on  the  edge  of  the  river. 

T^e  fifteen  hundred  men  embarked  upon  the  pon 
toons  were  put  under  command  of  Gen.  Hazen,  a 
brave,  brainy  man,  eminently  fit  to  manage  such  a 
hazardous  expedition.  Ge  .  Turchin,  another  brave 
and  capable  officer,  was  ordered  to  cooperate  by 
marching  with  his  brigade  and  a  battery  across  the 
peninsula  formed  by  the  river,  while  Gen.  Hooker,  ad 
vised  by  telegraph,  promised  to  put  his  command 
into  Lookout  Valley  in  time  to  support  the  movement. 


George  H.  Thomas.  237 

For  once  in  the  history  of  our  war,  three  different 
commands,  moving"  from  three  different  points,  con 
centrated  successfully  upon  an  objective,  and  Bragg 
awakened  in  the  morning  to  the  fact  that  relief  had 
penetrated  his  siege,  and  that  the  army  in  Chatta 
nooga  under  command  of  the  ablest  general  of  the 
Government,  George  Henry  Thomas,  was  not  only 
secure  but  in  a  condition  to  threaten  the  Confederacy 
from  that  important  strategic  point. 

One  cannot  help  dwelling-  on  that  movement  at  the 
dead  hour  of  midnight  as  it  floated  in  silence  down 
the  swift  river.  Hugging  the  right  bank,  it  swept 
by  the  camp-fires  of  the  foe,  every  second  laden 
with  the  fate  of  mighty  armies,  when  a  shout,  a 
word  even,  or  a  broken  oar  would  have  aroused  the 
enemy,  and  sunk  our  boats. 

Our  blessed  American  people  have  short  memories, 
and  in  the  hurry  of  great  events,  treading  many 
upon  the  heels  of  others,  the  man  who  planned  and 
the  man  who  executed  this  daring  and  important 
movement  seem  forgotten.  Rosecrans  passed  under 
a  cloud,  mostly  smoke  from  the  War  Department, 
out  of  the  army  and  the  fort  he  saved,  to  be  abused, 
while  the  gallant  Hazen  has  since  been  fairly  pil 
loried  before  the  public  by  low  malice  and  envy. 

SIEGE  OF  CHATTANOOGA. 

After  Rosecrans'  daring  operation  had  been  per 
fected  and  the  line  opened  not  only  for  supplies  but 
reinforcements,  Bragg  moved  on  the  suggestion  of 


238  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

Long-street  and  detached  that  able  officer  with  his 
corps  to  defeat  Burnside  at  Knoxville. 

When  Thomas  proposed  to  penetrate  East  Ten 
nessee  through  Knoxville  and  cut  one  of  the  Confed 
erate  lines  of  supply,  that  city  was  an  objective  of 
some  importance.  But  now  that  Chattanooga  was 
held  by  our  forces  Burnside  \vas  not  only  of  no  im 
portance  in  Knoxville,  but  a  standing  menace  of  dan 
ger  to  our  cause.  But  the  maggot  of  territory  was 
working  in  the  military  brain,  and  it  was  blind  to  the 
fact  that  the  territory  was  held  at  the  headquarters 
of  three  Confederate  armies  ;  one  under  Lee  at  Rich 
mond,  another  under  Bragg1  at  Chattanooga,  and  a 
third  under  Kirby  Smith,  west  of  the  Mississippi. 

Grant  at  Chattanooga  was  troubled  in  his  mili 
tary  mind  by  this  territorial  craze,  and  his  plans 
for  offensive  operations  were  shaped  by  his  ideas  in 
this  behalf.  He  accordingly  ordered  Thomas  to  make 
an  attack  on  the  northeastern  end  of  Missionary 
Ridge  with  all  the  troops  he  could  bring-  to  bear,  and 
so  force  Bragg  to  recall  Longstreet.  Thomas  saw  the 
utter  absurdity  of  this  move,  and  so  remonstrated. 

General  Grant,  in  his  report  and  other  official 
utterances  at  the  time,  gives  the  true  history  of  this 
affair  and  the  proof  is  ample  that  the  action  of  Gen 
eral  Thomas  was  wise  and  judicious. 

Badeau,  busily  engaged  in  building-  up  the  military 
reputation  of  one  man  at  the  expense  of  another, 
indulges  in  grave  misrepresentations,  and  quotes 
General  Sherman  to  substantiate  his  statements. 


George  II.  Thomas.  239 

Both  Badeau  and  Sherman  make  their  deep-sea 
soundings  with  a  pack-thread,  and  it  is  not  their  fault 
that  they  failed  to  do  better.  They  could  not  com 
prehend  the  man  who,  untainted  by  mean  ambition, 
had  an  eye  single  to  success,  and  calmly  discounted 
obstacles  when  ordered  to  accomplish  the  impossible. 
But  we  cannot  forgive  them  for  deliberately  putting 
lies  to  record  as  history,  and  it  is  astounding  that 
they  should  dare  to  do  so  with  overwhelming  evi 
dence  of  the  truth  before  them. 

The  proud,  silent,  sensitive  man  had,  from  the 
promptings  of  patriotism,  severed  the  ties  of  family 
and  friendship,  but  he  possessed  that  honorable 
ambition  ever  felt  by  genius,  when  realizing  its  su 
periority  over  associates  of  ordinary  ability.  Gen 
eral  Thomas  knew  that  in  command  of  the  brave 
fellows  he  had  trained  to  love  and  obey  him  he  could 
find  the  enemy  and  defeat  him  without  any  of  the 
bloody  disasters  that  had  shamed  us  before  the 
world.  Stung  to  the  quick  and  sick  at  heart  from 
the  injustice  done  him,  and  the  lack  of  confidence 
shown  in  his  loyalty  by  the  Government,  he  said  : 
"  I  will  protest  no  more.  I  serve  hereafter  under 
any  one  ordered  over  me,  and  in  any  field  designated, 
without  complaint,"  and  crowding  down  his  disap 
pointment  and  disgust  he  went  quietly  about  his 
work,  taking  orders  from  his  inferiors  with  an  appar 
ently  patient  indifference  that  was  called  "shrink 
ing-  from  responsibility." 

It  is  painful,  even  now,  to  look  back  through  that 


•240  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

hour  of  peril  to  us  as  a  nation,  read  the  shameful 
record  of  blunders  and  the  frightful  butchery  of 
brave  men,  and  realize  that  walking-  unnoticed 
among  the  padded,  epauletted  incapables  was  the 
great  war  genius  of  our  continent,  a  greater  than 
Napoleon,  for  to  his  knowledge  of  war  he  added  a 
patriotism  that  immolated  self  upon  the  altar  of  his 
country. 

The  more  exasperating  memory  is  the  complacent, 
patronizing  toleration  of  the  incapables  who  hap 
pened  to  be  in  command  when  the  great  Confederacy, 
after  a  gigantic  struggle,  fell  from  sheer  exhaustion. 

MISSIONARY  RIDGE. 

Well,  the  war  went  on.  Sherman  at  last  came 
up  with  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  and  Grant  felt 
strong  enough  to  assume  the  offensive.  Bragg, 
who,  on  throwing  his  lines  around  Chattanooga, 
found  the  impregnable  defences  weak  from  a  lack  of 
men  to  man  them,  had  permitted  the  golden  oppor 
tunity  to  slip  from  his  grasp.  Had  Thomas  executed 
Grant's  blind  order  to  attack  the  extremity  of  Mis 
sionary  Ridge  he  would  have  so  weakened  his  long 
line  of  defence  as  to  have  given  Bragg  his  choice  of 
point  of  attack.  Now  the  advantages  were  reversed, 
and  with  nearly  a  third  more  men  added  to  the  Gov 
ernment  forces  and  his  own  weakened  by  Long- 
street's  detachment,  Bragg  found  that  not  only  was 
the  offensive  impossible,  but  even  the  defensive  in 
doubt. 


George  H.  Thomas.  241 

To  the  curious  student  who  delves  carefully 
through  a  war's  history  there  are  no  more  amusing 
pieces  of  military  literature  than  the  reports  of  com 
manding  generals  after  engagements.  If  a  victory 
is  put  thus  on  record  the  solemn  recorder  takes  all 
the  credit  to  himself,  with  patronizing  reference  to 
subordinates  who  faithfully  executed  his  sagacious 
orders  and  the  men  who  did  the  fighting.  If,  on  the 
contrary,  it  is  an  undoubted  disaster,  the  blame  is 
shifted  to  the  shoulders  of  said  subordinates  who 
failed  to  execute  and  the  men  who  failed  to  fight 
out  said  judicious  plans. 

The  battle  or  battles  that  drove  Bragg  from 
Missionary  Ridge  and  Lookout  Mountain  illustrate 
this.  Grant,  who  had  the  merit  of  being  a  fighting 
character,  and  believed  in  himself,  planned  one 
engagement  and  his  subordinate  officers  and  men 
fought  to  a  successful  conclusion  quite  another. 
The  orders,  like  Jack  Cade's  bricks,  are  there  to  tes 
tify,  so  deny  it  not.  But  Grant,  Sherman,  and  the 
erudite  Badeau  do  deny,  and  all  join  in  a  record  that 
gives  the  general  commanding  (Grant)  the  credit 
of  the  result. 

One  can  understand  Sherman  in  this,  for  the  war 
was  fought  from  beginning  to  end  by  this  wonderful 
man,  if  we  are  to  believe  his  own  story,  while  all  the 
credit  he  cannot  take  to  himself  by  reason  of  absence 
or  other  slight  obstacle  he  graciously  gives  to  Grant. 
Nor  can  we  fail  to  appreciate  the  literary  Badeau,  for 
he  is  a  recognized  author  of  fiction.  But  Grant's  ap- 


242  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

proval  of  Badeau's  "  Military  History,"  with  his 
own  orders  so  clearly  contradicting-  the  so-called 
historical  statements,  is  inexplicable  unless  it  "be 
accounted  for  by  the  general,  in  common  with  the 
rest  of  mankind,  having-  failed  to  read  what  Badeau 
had  written. 

It  was  Grant's  purpose  to  have  Sherman  turn 
Bragg's  right.  This  was  supplemented  by  directing 
Hooker  to  turn  his  left,  while  Thomas'  command 
should  make  a  demonstration  against  his  centre, 
which  was  supposed  to  be  impregnable. 

Now  Sherman  did  not  successfully  turn  Bragg' s 
right,  and  though  Hooker  drove  in  his  left  he  was 
brought  to  a  stand-still  by  Chickamauga  Creek, 
which  presented  an  impassable  barrier  until  he 
could  throw  bridges  across  and  pass  his  troops  over 
to  press  his  attack.  But  the  centre  under  Thomas, 
with  its  divisions  commanded  by  Wood,  Baird, 
and  Sheridan,  not  only  demonstrated  against  the 
steep,  rocky,  cannon-crowned  heights,  but,  to  the 
amazement  of  the  general  commanding  who  wit 
nessed  the  scene,  charged  up  the  apparently  per 
pendicular  palisades  without  orders  from  him,  and 
drove  the  Confederates  from  their  works. 

The  fact  is  that  the  men  ordered  to  make  the  dem 
onstration  found  themselves  called  to  a  halt  at  the 
base  of  Missionary  Ridge.  The  position  was  unten 
able.  The  officers  in  command  had  their  choice  to 
make  the  desperate  advance  or  to  retreat.  To  remain 
where  Grant's  orders  left  them  was  assured  death  to 


George  H.  Thomas.  243 

the  whole  command.  It  did  not  take  these  brave 
fellows  long-  to  decide.  As  I  have  said,  they  charged 
up  and  carried  the  heights  before  them.  Who  among 
them  gave  the  order,  if  any  one,  is  not  known.  It  is 
known,  however,  that  Hazen's  brigade  led,  were  the 
first  upon  the  ridge,  first  to  capture  guns  and  turn 
them  upon  the  enemy. 

Grant  and  Thomas  stood  together,  surrounded  by 
their  staff  officers,  when  this  unexpected  assault 
upon  the  enemy's  centre  was  made.  Grant  turned 
fiercely  upon  Thomas. 

"  Who  gave  that  order  ?  "  he  demanded.  "  No  one 
that  I  know  of,"  responded  Thomas  quietly.  "  It  is, 
however,  the  thing  to  do." 

"It  shall  be  investigated,"  said  Grant,  little 
dreaming  that  volumes  would  be  written,  published 
and  claimed  to  be  approved  by  him,  trying  to  show 
that  this  grand  success  was  a  preconceived  idea  of 
his  own. 

These  were  the  men  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumber 
land,  the  same  columns  that  marched  under  Buell 
in  through  the  mass  of  panic-stricken  fugitives  at 
Shiloh,  and  swung  their  eagles  to  victory  on  the 
field  of  defeat  the  men  who  won  at  Stone  River,  and 
that  day  showed  themselves  worthy  to  be  com 
manded  by  the  Rock  of  Chickamauga. 

It  was  the  result  of  the  training  of  brave  men 
under  fire  until  they  were  brought  to  know  that  they 
could  march  and  fight  equally  with,  if  not  superior  to 
any  force  in  the  field,  and  to  feel  that  so  long  as  they 


244  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

touched  elbows  and  faced  the  enemy  under  the  com 
mand  of  the  man  they  loved  and  believed  in  they 
were  irresistible. 

This  was  the  lesson  of  the  war,  and,  dull  students 
that  we  are,  the  lesson  seems  lost.  A  commander 
can  make  or  mar  an  army.  McClellan,  for  example, 
organized  and  trained  his  forces  for  defeat.  For 
nearly  a  year  he  drilled  his  men  to  avoid  engage 
ments.  With  an  inferior  force  lying-  in  sight,  his  one 
comforting  bulletin  was,  "All  quiet  on  the  Potomac." 
Instead  of  training  his  white-gloved  battalions  to  the 
actualities  of  war,  he  developed  a  mysterious  awe  of 
the  unknown  that  lay  beyond  the  intrenchments  and 
guns  of  the  enemy.  When  that  wretched  blunder  of 
Ball's  Bluff  occurred  he  hastened  to  imprison  and 
persecute  a  capable,  noble-hearted  subordinate,  and 
spread  an  actual  panic  through  his  entire  army. 

Small  wonder  that  his  cotton-gloved  divisions  were 
tumbled  back  from  before  Richmond,  and  all  thanked 
God  with  pious  fervor  that  they  were  safe  again  be 
hind  the  fortifications  of  Washington. 

The  philosophy  of  the  victories  at  the  West  is  to 
be  found  in  the  fact  and  the  reason  for  it,  that  our 
brave  fellows  were  taught  to  believe  in  themselves 
through  training  under  fire. 

I  remember  vividly  the  impression  made  upon  me 
after  leaving  our  army  in  Virginia,  and  living  with 
that  of  the  West  at  Nashville.  I  found  myself  not 
only  among  men  of  a  different  sort,  but  men  who 
seemed  to  breathe  a  different  atmosphere.  The  awe 


George  H.  Thomas.  245 

that  amounted  almost  to  fear  in  the  armies  of  the 
East  had  no  existence  among-  the  men  of  the  West ; 
but  there  was  a  spirit  that  thought,  spoke,  and 
treated  the  foe  with  an  indifference  that  amounted 
to  contempt.  The  morale  was  superb,  and  had  it 
been  accompanied  throughout  by  the  drill  and  disci 
pline  given  to  part  by  General  Thomas,  we  would 
have  won  every  battle,  even  over  the  blunders  of 
commanding-  generals.  But  the  indifference  of  the 
men  became  recklessness  in  the  officers,  and  our  brave 
fellows  often,  on  the  most  trying  occasions,  found 
themselves  unavailing  food  for  powder. 

THE  ATLANTA  CAMPAIGN. 

Much  praise  and  a  wide  popularity  have  been 
awarded  General  Sherman  for  his  campaig-n  from 
Chattanooga  to  Atlanta.  This  campaign  not  only 
condoned  for  the  follies  and  frightful  disasters  of  his 
past,  but  gave  him  carte-blanche  for  any  foll\r  or 
imprudence  he  might  perpetrate  in  the  future. 

Newspaper  editors  who  have  no  time,  and  the 
masses  who  have  no  inclination  to  study  are  unani 
mous  in  regarding  the  Atlanta  Campaign  as  a 
brilliant  success  and  Tecumseh  Sherman  as  the 
greatest  general  our  continent  ever  produced.  The 
much-used  maxim  from  the  French,  that  there  is 
nothing  that  succeeds  like  success,  in  its  real  signifi 
cation  is  applicable  to  this  man  and  his  military  ca 
reer.  What  the  shrewd  Frenchman  meant  was  the 


246  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

confounding  of  sham  success  with  real  achievement  in 
the  popular  mind.  To  the  impartial  student  of  mil 
itary  history  this  campaign  was  something  of  which 
the  patriotic  mind  should  be  ashamed. 

General  Sherman  marched  out  with  one  hundred 
thousand  men,  and  they  were  veterans.  He  had 
under  him  such  men  as  Thomas,  McPherson,  Davis, 
Palmer,  Logan,  Stanley,  Hazen,  and  Hooker,  the 
flower  of  American  military  ability,  and  all  that  the 
power  and  wealth  of  a  great  government  could 
supply  was  poured  out  to  him  with  unsparing  hand. 
Thomas'  army  alone,  under  Thomas,  could  have 
marched  to  Richmond.  Sherman's  armies  were  in 
good  health,  armed  with  the  best  material  Yankee 
ingenuity  could  invent  and  perfect,  and  the  brave 
fellows  were  ready  to  march  wherever  ordered. 

Opposed  to  this  splendidly  equipped  force  was  the 
Army  of  the  Confederacy  under  Jos.  E.  Johnson, 
numbering  really  all  told  not  over  sixty  thousand  men. 
They  were  poorly  clad,  worse  fed,  badly  supplied 
with  arms  and  ammunition,  and  with  all  life  for  the 
contest  taken  out  of  them,  for  the  Confederacy  was 
falling  as  rapidly  as  it  had  risen.  They  closed  up 
their  thin  lines  with  no  hope  of  reinforcements,  and, 
although  one  is  forced  to  admit  that  they  fought  to 
the  end  with  courage  and  endu  ranee  \vhich  the  world 
will  never  appreciate,  this  one  hundred  thousand 
men  under  Sherman  ought  to  have  defeated  them 
and  taken  Atlanta  without  great  loss.  There  was 
no  point  between  the  two  places  such  as  Chatta- 


George  H.  Thomas.  24? 

nooga,  where  the  Confederate  general  could  make  a 
hopeful  stand,  no  place  where  he  could  escape  being 
flanked  upon  one  or  both  sides.  Had  a  capable 
general,  such  as  Thomas,  been  in  command  that 
would  have  been  the  result.  As  it  was,  counting 
the  casualties  of  our  army,  we  find  that  Sherman 
lost  in  killed  and  wounded,  died  and  missing,  about 
two- thirds  the  number  of  troops  Johnson  had  under 
his  command.  In  a  word,  Sherman  bought  Atlanta 
with  the  blood  of  thirty-five  thousand  of  the  gallant 
fellows  who  marched  under  our  colors.  This  is  called 
a  brilliant  campaign,  and  on  this  rests  the  fame  of 
our  popular  general.  Brilliant  it  was  with  the  hue 
of  patriotic  blood,  but  in  no  other  way. 

It  is  a  little  strange  to  note  the  change  in  popular 
feeling  brought  about  during  this  terrible  war. 
When  it  began,  as  I  have  told,  the  gallant  General 
Schenck — and  a  more  capable  officer  never  lived — lost 
ten  men  while  obeying  written  orders  from  a  supe 
rior  officer.  The  roar  of  wrathful  indignation  that 
went  up  over  the  land  at  the  sacrifice  of  human  life 
was  something  amazing.  General  Schenck  was 
denounced,  ridiculed,  and  abused  by  the  press  and 
the  people  to  such  an  extent  that,  had  it  not  been 
for  his  indomitable  will,  he  would  have  been  driven 
from  the  service.  Three  years  thereafter  General 
Sherman  builds  his  reputation  upon  the  wanton 
slaughter  of  thousands  of  our  best  men. 

The  blundering  stupidity  of  this  campaign  is  made 
manifest  in  the  history  of  the  very  first  move. 


248  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

General  Sherman  consulted  General  Thomas  as 
to  a  plan  of  campaign,  but  unfortunately  did  not 
follow  his  advice.  The  hero  of  Chickamauga  quietly 
traced  upon  the  map  a  proposition  that  bade  fair  to 
annihilate  the  enemy.  Johnson's  army,  between  fifty 
and  sixty  thousand  strong,  lay  in  front  of  Dalton, 
Georgia,  manning  the  almost  inaccessible  heights 
and  passes  of  Rocky  Face  Ridge  and  Buzzard  Roost, 
with  a  small  force  of  about  three  thousand  men 
stationed  at  the  fortified  town  of  Resaca  to  hold  his 
communications  secure.  Thomas  proposed  to  throw 
his  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  sixty  thousand  strong, 
through  Snake  Creek  Gap,  which  he  knew  to  be 
unguarded,  in  the  rear  of  Johnson  on  his  line  of 
communication,  between  Dalton  and  Resaca,  while 
Sherman  held  him  at  Dalton  with  the  remainder  of 
his  forces.  In  this  way  the  Confederate  commander 
would  be  forced  to  fight  Thomas  at  a  disadvantage 
or,  abandoning  Dalton  and  his  communications,  re 
treat  eastward  through  a  rough  and  broken  country, 
where  his  army  Avould  have  been  cut  to  pieces  or 
disorganized.  General  Thomas  was  confident  that 
should  the  Confederates  turn  on  him  he  could  defeat 
them  with  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  alone,  as  he 
had  done  before.  This  plan  Sherman  refused  to 
adopt,  alleging  as  a  reason  that  he  desired  to  hold 
Thomas'  army  as  a  rallying-point  for  the  other  two 
armies,  though  what  he  wanted  with  such  rallying- 
point,  unless  he  expected  his  other  two  armies  that 
numbered  about  as  many  men  as  Johnson  had  to 


George  II.  Thomas.  249 

run  away,  is  hard  to  understand.  We  are  forced  to 
attribute  Sherman's  wilfulness  to  the  jealousy  felt 
Toy  a  general  who  never  won  a  victory  toward  one 
who  never  suffered  a  defeat. 

Sherman,  however,  was  forced  to  accept  enough 
of  this  plan  to  rob  Thomas  of  the  credit  and  himself 
of  success.  He  sent  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee, 
twenty-three  thousand  strong,  under  General  Mc- 
Pherson,  through  Snake  Creek  Gap,  not  to  throw 
themselves  in  the  rear  of  Johnson  as  Thomas  pro 
posed,  but  with  orders  to  destroy  the  railroad  be 
tween  Dalton  and  Resaca,  then  to  fall  back  on  Snake 
Creek  Gap  and  lie  in  readiness  to  attack  Johnson's 
flank  as  he  passed  in  retreat  from  Dalton  on  this 
line  kindly  left  open  for  him,  as,  doubtless,  Sherman 
expected  him  to  do. 

What  was  the  good  of  all  this  no  man  can  under 
stand,  and  the  only  effect  of  McPherson's  feeble 
effort  was  to  demonstrate  the  wisdom  of  Thomas' 
plan.  He  found  the  gap  occupied  by  a  slight  force 
which  he  brushed  aside,  and  marched  within  a  mile 
and  a  half  of  the  Confederate  intrenchments  at 
Resaca,  which  for  three  days  after  his  appearance 
were  manned  by  not  more  than  three  thousand 
infantry.  Having  thus  warned  the  enemy  of  what 
might  befall  him,  that  gallant  officer,  having  exe 
cuted  his  order,  fell  back  on  Snake  Creek  Gap  and 
fortified.  Had  Thomas  with  his  sixty  thousand  men 
been  there  in  McPherson's  stead,  as  he  proposed,  he 
would  have  occupied  and  held  Resaca  to  the  utter 
ruin  of  the  Confederate  general. 


250  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

Sherman,  having-  executed  this  brilliant  manoeuvre, 
made  some  active  demonstrations  against  the  moun 
tain-sides  which  he  could  not  scale,  and  would  have 
remained  there,  probably  to  this  day  if  the  Com 
mittee  on  the  Conduct  of  the  War  could  have  found 
patience  for  such  delay,  had  not  Johnson  discovered 
the  insecurity  of  his  own  position,  through  the  feeble 
demonstration  of  McPherson,  and  fallen  back  to  his 
fortifications  at  Resaca  with  the  loss  of  but  few 
men. 

Here  is  an  anecdote  illustrative  of  Thomas'  char 
acter  :  When  he  heard  that  McPherson  had  given 
as  an  excuse  for  not  throwing1  his  army  in  the  rear 
of  Johnson,  that  the  dense  forest  prevented  it,  he 
quietly  remarked  :  "  Where  were  their  axes  ?  "  and 
a  day  or  so  after,  large  portions  of  the  army  marched 
through  this  same  impassable  woods. 

This  mistake  at  Resaca  was  but  the  beginning  of  a 
hundred  days  of  campaigning-  made  up  of  blunders 
and  disasters,  which  nothing-  but  the  overwhelming- 
numbers  of  the  Union  Army,  the  ability  of  Sherman's 
subordinates,  and  the  endurance  and  gallantry  of  his 
men  enabled  him  to  carry  to  a  successful  termina 
tion,  which  was  accomplished  at  last  in  spite  of  his 
terrible  errors. 

The  battle  of  Resaca,  with  its  direct,  bloody,  and 
ineffectual  attacks  on  the  Confederates'  intrenched 
position,  ended  in  Johnson's  again  withdrawing  in 
good  order,  although  Sherman  had  a  bridge  and 
every  opportunity  to  put  his  army  in  his  rear  and 
cut  off  his  retreat. 


George  H.  Thomas.  251 

The  combined  Union  armies  moved  in  pursuit 
southward  toward  Cassville,  Georgia.  Johnson  was 
disposed  to  accept  battle  north  of  the  Etowah  River, 
but  being-  dissuaded  by  his  corps  commanders,  re 
treated  behind  that  stream  to  Allatoona  Pass,  where 
he  began  to  gather  slight  reinforcements,  and  Sher 
man  paused  in  his  pursuit  to  rest  his  men. 

The  only  action  worthy  of  record  on  this  march 
was  the  capture  of  Rome,  Georgia,  with  its  immense 
machine-shops  and  iron-works,  great  stores  of  cot 
ton,  and  some  artillery.  This  was  accomplished  by 
General  Jeff.  C.  Davis,  commanding  a  division  of  Gen 
eral  Thomas'  army.  This,  Davis,  who  with  all  of 
Thomas'  subordinates  had  been  trained  never  to 
lose  an  opportunity  to  hurt  the  enemy,  did  without 
orders  from  the  Commander-in-Chief,  and  as  far 
as  that  Commander-in-Chief  was  concerned  Rome 
and  its  plant,  so  valuable  to  the  Confederacy,  might 
have  remained  intact  to  this  day. 

General  Sherman  laid  waste  the  property  of  the 
private  citizen,  and  blackened  the  heavens  with  the 
smoke  of  burning  dwellings  and  cotton-gins,  but  the 
property  especially  valuable  to  the  Confederate  Gov 
ernment  he  treated  with  great  consideration,  as  wit 
ness  this  case  of  Rome,  and  that  of  the  great  Confed 
erate  arsenal  sand  ammunition  factories  at  Augusta. 

After  a  few  days'  rest  Sherman  crossed  the  Etowah 
with  his  three  armies  and  moved  to  turn  Johnson's 
left  flank,  Allatoona  Pass  being  a  fortified  position  of 
great  strength. 


^  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

At  New  Hope  Church  he  ordered  an  assault  on 
Johnson's  intrenched  lines,  which  resulted  in  the 
usual  slaughter  with  no  compensating-  gains.  In 
this  assault  the  National  forces  lost  fifteen  hundred 
men  killed  and  w-ounded,  the  Confederates  less  than 
one-third  that  number. 

Having  thus  failed,  Sherman  moved  toward  the 
enemy's  flank  and  Johnson  fell  slowly  back,  holding 
every  point  to  the  last,  until  he  threw  himself  within 
his  heavily  fortified  lines  extending  from  Kenesaw 
to  Pine  Mountain.  This  \vas  a  position  impregnable 
in  front,  the  record  of  which  fact  Sherman,  to  gratify 
his  personal  vanity,  insisted  on  writing1  upon  the 
rebel  parapets  in  Union  blood. 

Selecting  perhaps  the  strongest  point  along  the 
Confederate  lines  on  Kenesaw  Mountain  he  ordered 
an  -assault  in  force. 

General  Thomas  who  thoroughly  understood  the 
condition  of  affairs  in  front,  the  great  strength  of  the 
enemy's  intrenchments,  and  who  never  hesitated  to 
put  his  gallant  veterans  into  action  when  there  was 
any  assurance  of  success,  opposed  this  order.  On 
the  other  hand,  he  suggested  that  the  Army  of  the 
Tennessee,  McPherson  commanding,  be  ordered  to 
advance  against  Johnson's  position  from  the  north, 
where  the  way  was  open. 

Noth withstanding-  his  protest  and  wise  advice 
Thomas  was  peremptorily  ordered  to  make  the 
assault.  It  was  a  desperate  piece  of  work,  costing 
fearfully  in  the  loss  of  valuable  officers  and  fifteen 


George  H.  Thomas.  253 

hundred  men,  and  giving1  nothing-  in  return  for  the 
sacrifice.  The  Confederate  loss  was  only  one  hun 
dred  and  thirty-six  killed  and  wounded. 

General  Thomas,  in  reporting  the  result,  said  : 
"  We  have  already  lost  heavily  to-day  without  gain 
ing  any  material  advantage.  One  or  two  more  such 
assaults  would  use  up  this  army." 

Again  replying  to  Sherman's  request  for  his  opin 
ion  regarding  a  flank  movement  he  said :  "  What 
force  do  you  propose  moving-  with  ?  If  with  the 
greatest  part  of  the  army,  I  think  it  decidedly  better 
than  butting  against  breastworks  twelve  feet  thick 
and  strongly  abattised." 

These  opinions  from  a  soldier  of  transcendent  abil 
ity  and  iron  nerve,  who  had  with  his  devoted  men 
faced  fearful  odds  in  what  seemed  to  be  a  hopeless 
struggle  at  Chickamauga,  ought  to  be  sufficient 
comment  on  Sherman's  mad  course.  And  let  it  be 
remembered  that  they  are  not  quoted  from  memoirs 
written  in  piping  times  of  peace,  but  from  official 
communications  made  to  his  commander  and  for 
which  he  was,  as  a  soldier,  responsible. 

But  if  anything  further  is  needed  it  will  be  found 
in  Sherman's  attempted  explanation  of  his  bloody 
attack  and  wretched  failure,  which  he  made  to  Gen 
eral  Halleck.  He  says : 

"  The  assault  I  made  was  no  mistake ;  I  had  to 
do  it.  The  enemy  and  our  own  army  and  officers 
had  settled  down  into  the  conviction  that  the  assault 
of  lines  formed  no  part  of  my  game,  and  the  moment 


'-25-i  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

the  enemy  was  found  behind  anything"  like  a  para 
pet,  why,  everybody  would  deploy,  throw  up  coun 
ter-works,  and  take  it  easy,  leaving1  it  to  the  i  Old 
Man '  to  turn  the  position." 

As  for  "  taking-  it  easy,"  the  bone-marked  lines 
and  blood-stained  intrenchments  from  Tunnel  Hill 
to  Lovejoy  Station,  tell  a  different  story.  But  here 
is  a  man  who,  urged  on  by  his  mad  ambition  and 
insane  vanhVv,  in  the  face  of  the  advice  and  opposi 
tion  of  his  ablest  officer,  sends  whole  brigades  of 
devoted  men  against  impregnable  works,  and  de 
votes  the  very  flower  of  his  countrymen,  without  the 
hope  or  chance  of  material  gain  in  any  way,  merely 
to  gratify  a  personal  whim.  He  was  willing-  and 
anxious  to  sacrifice  the  lives  of  any  number  of  his 
men  to  ward  off  a  possible  suspicion  that  he  was 
over-cautious  and  afraid  to  assault  intrenched  lines. 
He  should  have  led  the  assault  in  person,  as  that 
would  probably  have  resulted  in  placing  General 
Thomas  in  command  of  the  armies,  which  would,  in 
some  degree,  have  compensated  for  the  bloody  cost. 

Said  an  eminent  Union  officer,  now  a  pet  of  his 
party  in  Ohio  :  "  So  far  as  that  wanton  slaughter  of 
our  troops  was  concerned,  it  had  its  origin  in  Sher 
man's  heartless  vanity.  As  we  marched  on,  gaining 
almost  bloodless  triumphs  through  superior  numbers 
that  enabled  us  to  flank  the  enemy  at  every  stand 
taken,  Grant  was  having-  bloody  fig-hts  that  filled 
the  newspapers  with  sensations.  This  was  too  much 
for  Sherman,  and  he  immediately  ordered  an  assault 


George  H.  Thomas.  255 

that  was  so  utterly  hopeless  that  he  should  have 
been  court-martialled  for  murder.  But  his  point  was 
gained.  The  newspapers  were  laden  with  a  tremen 
dous  battle  at  Kenesaw  Mountain  under  Sherman, 
and  the  men  who  died  and  the  men  who  crawled 
home  crippled  for  life  were  the  victims  of  his  insane 
ambition. 

"  He  was  in  error  when  he  wrote  Halleck  to  the 
elfect  that  officers  and  men  had  concluded  that  the 
old  man  would  not  fig-lit.  The  fatal  conclusion  that 
officers  and  men  had  arrived  at  was  that  the  old  man 
could  not  fig-lit.  All  we  accomplished  was  done  by 
the  old  man's  subordinate  officers  in  spite  of  him." 

Failing1  in  this  desperate  attack  Sherman  did 
what  he  should  have  done  before,  moved  his  right 
flank  in  order  to  force  Johnson  to  evacuate  his  un 
assailable  lines.  In  this  he  succeeded. 

The  command  of  the  Confederate  Army  was 
transferred  to  General  Hood,  and  that  bold  and 
dashing1  officer,  assuming  the  offensive  with  great 
vigor  and  impetuosity  in  front  of  Atlanta,  endeav 
ored  to  execute  a  plan  conceived  by  General  John 
son  to  defeat  and  crush  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland 
as  it  advanced  across  Peach  Tree  Creek.  His  ac 
tion  was  well  and  skilfully  planned  and  carried  into 
execution  with  great  courage,  but  it  failed  utterly. 
Hood  fell  with  great  fury  upon  the  Army  of  the 
Cumberland  as  it  was  crossing  the  stream,  and 
though  Thomas  had  been  weakened  by  the  detach 
ment  of  Wood's  and  Stanley's  divisions,  he  was 


25G  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

hurled  back  with  fearful  slaughter  and  without, 
from  first  to  last,  gaining*  a  single  advantage. 
General  Thomas  was  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  di 
recting  his  artillery  in  person,  and,  by  his  personal 
presence  and  prompt  action,  saved  the  flank  of  his 
army.  Here  Thomas  proved  the  truth  of  his  words, 
when  he  asked  permission  to  throw  his  army  in 
Johnson's  rear  at  Resaca,  that  he  could  defeat  the 
Confederate  Army  with  the  Army  of  the  Cumber 
land  alone. 

This  defeat  was  a  terrible  blow  to  the  enemy,  who 
after  an  unavailing,  despairing  struggle  fell  back 
southward,  leaving  Atlanta  to  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  National  armies. 

No  impartial  reader  can  review  the  history  of  this 
campaign  without  seeing  and  acknowledging  that 
whenever  General  Thomas'  advice  and  plans  were 
followed  success  was  assured,  and  whenever  his  ad 
vice  was  set  at  naught  disaster  was  the  result. 

FRANKLIN  AND  NASHVILLE. 

The  military  gentlemen  who  have  indulged  in 
memoirs,  and  the  so-called  historians  who  have  given 
us  books  on  the  war,  have  omitted  the  larger  facts 
connected  with  the  struggle.  Jt  will  sound  strange 
to  such,  and  to  a  majority  of  my  readers,  when  I  say 
that  the  Confederacy  was  never  so  near  success 
as  at  the  time  when  Sherman's  army  took  Atlanta, 
and  Grant  was  driving  in  the  enemy  at  Richmond. 


George  H.  Thomas.  257 

It  was  to  the  Confederates  the  darkest  hour  that 
precedes  the  morn,  only  owing1  to  George  H.  Thomas 
that  morn  never  dawned.  To  understand  this  we 
have  to  know  that  from  the  first  firing-  on  Sumter  to 
the  last  gun  at  Appomattox  the  Confederate  Govern 
ment  had  rested  its  last  and  highest  hope,  and 
reasonably  so,  on  European  interference.  They  had 
counted  correctly  on  the  fact  that  Cotton  was  king. 
The  dethronement,  for  the  time  being,  of  that 
monarch  not  only  paralyzed  trade  at  home,  but  sent 
distress  to  every  trading  mart  the  world  over.  That 
in  England,  France,  and  Germany  was  greater  than 
in  the  United  States,  for  here,  possessed  of  an  inflated 
currency  that  strangely  held  its  own,  the  Govern 
ment  was  in  the  market  as  a  purchaser  of  all  the 
produce  North  and  West.  The  reaction  to  this 
at  home  did  not  come  on  until  18TG,  but  in  Europe 
the  distress  had  no  such  source  of  relief.  The 
S3'mpathies  of  the  aristocracy  in  England  and  of  the 
military  Government  of  France  were  on  the  side  of 
the  Confederates.  In  this  they  were  sustained  by 
the  traders  who  felt  the  oppression  of  the  war. 

For  three  years  during  the  strife  the  South  had 
its  ablest  advocates  in  Europe  negotiating  for  the 
interference  to  which  it  was  entitled  in  the  first  year 
of  the  conflict.  England  through  her  cautious  policy 
of  late  years  hesitated,  while  Russia  dallied  with 
the  temptation.  The  most  active,  bitter,  and  influ 
ential  of  the  war  powers  abroad  acting  against  us 
was  that  under  Louis  Napoleon.  Having  completed 


258  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

his  combination  with  all  the  Governments  abroad, 
except  England,  the  emperor  threw  an  army  into 
Mexico  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  setting-  up  an 
imperial  government,  but  really  intending  to  make 
Mexico  a  base  of  operations  in  behalf  of  the 
Confederacy  against  the  United  States.  His  aid, 
although  offered  early,  came  late  and  at  a  moment 
when  the  Confederacy  was  about  to  fall  from  ex 
haustion.  It  was  calculated  at  Richmond  that  if  a 
brilliant  stroke  could  be  accomplished,  however  mad 
and  futile  it  might  appear  so  far  as  the  mere  Confed 
eracy  was  concerned,  it  would  not  onry  strengthen 
the  purpose  of  Louis  Napoleon,  but  revive  again  the 
drooping  spirits  of  such  Northern  Democrats  as 
opposed  the  war. 

To  this  end  it  was  purposed  to  have  Hood  move 
his  entire  army  from  before  Sherman  and  make  an 
advance  to  the  Ohio  River.  It  was  counted  that  the 
effect  of  this  would  be  to  force  Sherman  back,  as  they 
had  before  forced  back  Buell  to  our  northern  border. 

Wherever  the  Confederate  Army  appeared,  for 
whatever  purpose  it  might  have  in  view,  it  was  nec 
essary  to  meet  it  with  an  army  of  the  Government. 
Until  the  armed  forces  of  the  Confederacy  were  de 
stroyed  or  captured  the  war  would,  of  course,  go  on. 

While  the  authorities  at  Richmond  were  preparing 
for  this  desperate  move,  an  event  of  the  most  extra 
ordinary  character  occurred,  that  is  when  looked  at 
from  a  military  point  of  view,  that  ever  happened  in 
any  war. 


George  H.  Thomas.  259 

General  Sherman  with  sixty  thousand  men  sud 
denly  disappeared  from  the  front.  Had  the  earth 
opened  and  swallowed  the  entire  force  it  could  not 
have  more  effectually  been  removed  from  its  legiti 
mate  field  of  operations. 

It  seems  that  General  Thomas  had  suggested  to 
his  commander,  Sherman,  that  he  be  permitted  to 
take  his  little  army  of  three  corps  and  march  across 
Georgia,  destroying  Augusta  and  moving  on  to  the 
aid  of  Grant  at  Richmond .  It  appears  that  Sherman 
seized  on  this  bold  proposition  and  proceeded  at  once 
to  put  it  in  execution,  but,  as  always,  with  enough 
difference  to  insure  its  ruin.  Sherman  was  troubled 
with  the  fear  that  having  accomplished  all  that  con  Id 
be  done  at  Atlanta,  he  would  be  ordered  with  the  bulk 
of  his  forces  to  Richmond  to  serve  under  Grant.  To 
avoid  this  he  marched  his  army  from  the  front  to 
fight  the  Georgia  militia,  and  waste  time  in  a  useless 
march  to  the  sea,  and  the  authorities  at  Richmond 
found  themselves  presented  with  an  extraordinary 
opening  for  their  move  to  the  Ohio. 

Hood  had  under  his  command  for  the  purpose 
some  fifty  thousand  men,  as  a  desperate  effort  had 
been  made  to  augment  his  forces  for  this  expedition. 

Sherman  had  scarcely  disappeared  before  a  panic 
broke  out  at  Washington,  and  spread  through  the 
country,  even  to  the  headquarters  of  the  impertur 
bable,  immovable  Grant  before  Richmond.  They  all 
knew  that  nothing  stood  in  the  way  of  Hood's  success 
but  the  name  of  Thomas.  This  officer  had  been  left 


260  Men  W ho  Saved  the  Union. 

with  about  twenty-two  thousand  men,  scattered  from 
Knoxville,  Tennessee,  to  Florence,  Alabama.  Beside 
this  he  had  been  ordered  to  garrison  and  hold  all 
the  important  points  gained  at  the  cost  of  so  much 
blood  and  treasure,  in  order  that  Andy  Johnson 
might  continue  Governor  of  Tennessee. 

It  was  thoroughly  known  at  Washington,  as  well 
as  at  headquarters  before  Richmond,  that  Kirby 
Smith  had  been  ordered  to  cross  the  Mississippi  and 
join  his  forces  to  those  of  Hood,  and  he  was  on 
his  way  for  that  purpose  when  Sherman  disap 
peared.  To  augment  the  terrors  of  the  situation 
this  all  occurred  late  in  the  fall,  when  the  con 
centration  of  the  twenty -two  thousand  was  difficult, 
and  appeared  impossible. 

It  looked  to  the  authorities  at  Washington,  cogni 
zant  of  all  the  facts,  that  there  was  really  nothing 
in  the  way  of  Hood's  advance  to  the  Ohio,  and  they 
well  knew  that  such  a  bold  stroke  successfully  played 
would  revive  the  dying  fortunes  of  the  Confederates 
by  inviting  an  invasion  from  Mexico  by  the  French. 
One  has  only  to  read  the  telegrams,  now  of  record, 
that  poured  in  upon  Thomas,  to  realize  that  that 
great  man  had  thrown  upon  him  for  the  third  time 
the  salvation  of  the  Union.  To  vindicate  the  fact,  I 
have  so  f  requently  asserted,  that  of  all  the  military 
men  doing  service  for  the  Government  Thomas 
alone  is  entitled  to.  the  position  of  first  and  foremost, 
I  want  nothing  more  than  these  telegrams.  They 
tell  their  story  in  the  brief  wording  of  the  wire  that 


George  II.  Thomas.  261 

seems  to  have  vibrated  with  fear  and  anxiety. 
Another  fact  goes  to  confirm  this  statement,  and  it 
is  a  most  deplorable  one.  Owing-  to  the  poverty  of 
the  Confederacy  the  prisoners  taken  by  its  armies 
were  subject  not  only  to  the  most  painful  privation, 
but  were  dying  of  disease  and  from  exposure.  The 
Government  at  Washington,  from  a  sense  of  hu 
manity  alone,  was  hurrying  through  exchanges  as 
rapidly  as  they  could  be  arranged,  when  Grant 
telegraphed  Secretary  Stanton  that  if  this  were 
continued  and  thirty  thousand  healthy  Confederates 
added  to  the  armies  of  the  South  it  would  prove  the 
ruin  of  Sherman.  There  seemed  to  be  more  anxiety 
at  headquarters  over  Sherman  than  about  Thomas. 
This,  however,  is  easily  accounted  for,  as,  in  addition 
to  the  foregoing  facts,  there  remained  the  further 
one  that  the  general  commanding  at  Richmond  had 
sanctioned  the  March  to  the  Sea,  and  must  therefore 
have  been  held  responsible  for  the  ruinous  results 
that  stared  the  Government  in  the  face. 

During  all  this,  General  Thomas,  regardless  of  the 
clamor  about  him,  proceeded  calmly  yet  swiftly  to 
collect  the  detachments  of  his  little  army  upon 
which  so  much  depended.  He  knew,  as  was  also 
well  known  at  Washington,  that  he  could  count  on 
no  reinforcements,  save  A.  J.  Smith's  division  from 
Missouri,  which  was  slow  in  coming.  Every  man  at 
the  command  of  the  War  Department  had  been  sent 
to  Grant  and  Sherman,  and  the  last  named  had  not 
only  deprived  Thomas  of  all  the  troops  he  dared  take, 


262  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

but  had  dismounted  the  cavalry  and  unhorsed  the 
artillery  that  he  left  behind  to  mount  his  own  troops, 
and  marched  away.  We  cannot  wonder  at  the  con 
sternation  felt  at  Washington  and  before  Richmond, 
but  we  do  wonder  at  the  cool,  quiet  courage  of  the 
man,  who,  without  complaint  or  remonstrance  of  any 
sort,  proceeded  to  do  the  best  he  could  under  circum 
stances  that  would  have  discouraged  one  of  less 
heroic  mould. 

Sherman  turned  his  back,  leaving  Hood  on  the 
banks  of  the  Tennessee  with  no  force  in  position  to 
dispute  his  crossing.  It  is  said  in  defence  of  Sherman, 
who  was  then  within  a  short  distance  of  the  Confed 
erate  Army,  that  he  expected  Hood  to  follow  him. 
Why  the  Confederate  general  should  do  this  puzzles 
one  to  understand.  He  could  as  well  have  disbanded 
his  army  as  have  been  guilty  of  any  such  folly.  On 
the  contrary,  with  the  country  left  at  his  mercy,  even 
without  the  expected  co-operation  of  the  French 
emperor,  he  could  by  crossing  the  Tennessee  cut  the 
communications  with  Chattanooga  and  Atlanta  and, 
moving  on  toward  the  Ohio,  have  undone  in  one 
bloodless  campaign  all  -that  the  Government  had 
accomplished  in  a  three  years'  expenditure  of  blood 
and  treasure. 

Sherman  abandoning  his  only  proper  objective, 
Hood's  army,  marched  away  with  the  bulk  of  the 
Army  of  the  West  splendidly  equipped.  Hood  lay 
on  the  south  bank  of  the  Tennessee  with  the  crossing 
at  Florence  in  his  grasp,  his  command,  to  use  his 


George  H.  Thomas.  263 

own  words,  "  entirely  recovered  from  the  depression 
created  by  frequent  retreats,"  intact,  and  but 
slightly,  if  at  all,  reduced  in  numbers. 

Between  Hood  and  Nashville,  when  his  intentions 
were  finally  fully  developed,  on  his  immediate  front 
were  four  small  brigades  of  cavalry  and,  guarding 
a  line  fifty  miles  in  length  from  north  of  Pulaski  to 
Centreville  on  Duck  River,  eighteen  thousand  infan 
try  under  General  Schofield.  His  instructions  from 
General  Thomas  were  to  fight  at  Pulaski  if  the 
enemy  advanced  against  him  in  that  direction,  but  if 
Hood  endeavored  to  turn  his  flank  he  was  to  concen 
trate  his  command  at  Columbia  on  the  line  of  Duck 
River.  Thomas  was  striving  to  hinder  and  delay 
Hood  until  he  could  unite  his  forces  from  the  scat 
tered  garrisons  with  recruits  from  the  North  and 
the  troops  promised  from  Missouri,  and  then  con 
fronting  the  Confederate  general  offer  a  decisive 
battle. 

General  Hood,  after  putting  his  army  north  of  the 
Tennessee,  pushed  forward  and  forced  Schofield  back 
upon  Columbia.  The  Missouri  reinforcements  un 
der  A.  J.  Smith  were  much  delayed,  and  the  new 
recruits  from  the  North  and  colored  troops  reporting 
to  Thomas  did  not  more  than  fill  the  places  vacated 
by  veterans  discharged  by  reason  of  expiration  of 
service  or  sent  home  to  vote,  and  it  wras  necessary 
to  retard  Hood's  advance  as  much  as  possible. 

Hood  moved  on  Columbia  and  put  in  execution 
his  plan  to  hold  Schofield  at  that  point  by  a  feigned 


264  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

attack  upon  his  front ;  while  crossing-  Duck  River  he 
would  throw  seven  divisions  of  infantry  and  a  heavy 
force  of  cavalry  in  the  Union  rear,  and  so  annihilate 
or  capture  Schofield's  little  army.  He  succeeded 
admirably  in  deceiving*  Schofield,  a  general  open  to 
such  treatment,  placed  his  troops  exactly  where  he  in 
tended  and,  but  for  the  remarkable  energy  of  Gen 
eral  Stanley,  the  errors  of  Hood's  corps  commanders, 
and  an  almost  miraculous  combination  of  circum 
stances  would  have  captured  Schofield's  entire  com 
mand  and  assured  the  success  of  his  northward 
march. 

General  Thomas'  instructions  to  Schofield  at  this 
stage  were,  that  if  he  could  not  hold  Columbia  he 
should  fall  back  and  take  up  a  new  position  at  Frank 
lin.  Schofield  believed,  as  witness  his  own  report, 
that  Hood  had  at  least  between  forty  or  fifty  thou 
sand  men.  On  the  28th  of  November  his  cavahy 
commander  reported  that  Hood  was  crossing  Duck 
River  in  force  and  moving  on  his  rear.  At  3.30 
A.M.  of  the  29th,  General  Thomas  instructed  him  by 
telegraph,  "  I  desire  you  to  fall  back  from  Colum 
bia  and  take  up  your  position  at  Franklin." 

Hood,  having  crossed  the  river,  moved  at  the 
head  of  his  army  at  daybreak  and  placed  seven  of 
his  divisions  twelve  miles  in  Schofield's  rear,  on  his 
line  of  retreat  to  Franklin,  at  Springhills.  During 
this  movement  of  the  enemy,  regardless  of  General 
Thomas'  order,  General  Schofield  was  leisurely  wait 
ing-  further  information.  Half  of  one  division  of  his 


George  H.  Thomas.  265 

army  was  clown  Duck  River,  and  the  remainder  of  his 
command  strung-  along-  the  Franklin  Pike  from  Co 
lumbia  to  Spring-hills,  with  General  Stanley  and  one 
division  of  the  old  Fourth  Corps  in  advance.  At  3 
P.M.  General  Schofield  started  from  Columbia  with 
his  rear  division  for  Spring-hills.  At  that  very  hour 
Hood,  with  his  seven  divisions,  was  in  sight  of  the 
town,  and  had  ordered  Cheatham's  corps  to  take  and 
hold  the  Franklin  Pike  while  he  moved  the  remain 
ing  four  divisions  to  his  support.  Here,  then,  were 
seven  Confederate  divisions,  closed  up  within  sup 
porting  distance,  with  Schofield's  line  of  retreat 
almost  in  their  grasp,  and  that  general's  three  di 
visions  stretched  over  twelve  miles  of  road,  and 
encumbered  with  heavy  trains. 

Fortunately  for  the  safet^y  of  the  Union  Army, 
which  seemed  hopelessly  involved,  General  Stanley 
with  one  division  of  the  Fourth  Corps  of  Thomas' 
old  Army  of  the  Cumberland  entered  Springhills 
from  the  south  as  Hood's  army  moved  on  the  place 
from  the  west. 

Deploying  two  brigades  in  a  long,  thin,  weak  line  to 
cover  the  town,  he  sent  forward  the  remaining  brigade 
to  cover  the  approaches  and  contest  the  advance  of 
the  Confederates.  Here,  at  this  critical  moment, 
was  one  division  against  nearly  the  whole  Confed 
erate  Army,  with  the  fate  of  Thomas'  command,  the 
failure  or  success  of  Hood's  campaign,  and  the  very 
salvation  of  the  nation  -depending  on  its  steadiness 
and  courage.  And  a  most  gallant  and  obstinate 


266  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

defence  they  made,  holding-  the  line  from  the  early 
afternoon  until  7  P.M.,  when  Schofield  arrived  seven 
hours  behind  the  Confederate  general. 

Schofield's  little  army  had  then,  when  night  fell, 
seven  divisions  of  the  enemy  on  its  front  and  flank 
and  two  pressing  hard  upon  its  rear,  while  its  train 
of  five  hundred  wagons  and  artillery  had  to  pass 
close  along  and  in  front  of  the  enemy's  lines,  in 
order  to  escape  toward  Nashville.  Thanks  to  the 
splendid  skill  of  General  Stanley,  and  the  coolness  of 
his  men,  the  little  army  passed  under  the  guns,  and  in 
sight  of  the  camps  of  the  enemy,  and  fell  rapidly 
back  upon  Franklin. 

There  was  not  time  to  cross  the  Harpath  Eiver 
before  Hood's  exulting  Confederates,  now  moving  in 
hot  pursuit,  should  be  upon  them;  part  of  the 
National  Army,  therefore,  faced  about  and  took  posi 
tion  south  of  Franklin,  with  their  flanks  resting 
upon  the  river,  and  hastily  threw  up  intrenchments 
to  cover  the  crossing  of  the  trains  and  hold  the 
enemy  in  check  until  night  should  enable  the  whole 
force  to  withdraw. 

Here,  considering  the  time  it  lasted,  occurred  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  and  bloodiest  actions,  and  to 
the  Confederates  one  of  the  most  signal  disasters  of 
the  war. 

The  Union  forces  were  posted  in  a  single  in 
trenched  line,  with  only  one  brigade  in  reserve,  and 
with  two  brigades  stationed  in  the  open  field,  covered 
only  by  a  slight  breastwork,  a  third  of  a  mile  in 


George  H.  Thomas.  267 

front  of  the  main  line.  The  position  of  these  brigades 
was  a  grave  error  and  came  near  resulting-  in  a 
calamity. 

When  Hood's  army  arrived  in  view  of  the  Union 
position  it  was  formed  in  column  of  attack,  and,  with 
out  a  moment's  hesitation,  swept  down  in  splendid 
order  to  overwhelm  the  National  troops.  Led  by 
their  general  officers,  knoAving  their  superior  num 
bers,  and  confident  of  victory,  the  Confederates  came 
on,  and  with  a  steadiness  of  movement  under  the 
fire  of  the  Federal  guns  that  would  have  appalled 
any  but  thoroughly  disciplined  troops.  The  two 
advanced  brigades,  though  resisting  to  the  last, 
were  enveloped  and  brushed  away,  and,  rushing 
back,  pursued  and  pursuers  poured  over  the  works 
in  a  confused  mass.  Two  Federal  batteries  were 
seized  in  an  instant  and  turned  to  enfilade  the 
National  lines.  Fortunately,  one  of  the  retreating 
brigades,  leaping  over  the  parapet,  turned  and,  firing 
a  volley  into  the  enemy,  manned  part  of  the  vacated 
works.  And  then  was  made  one  of  the  most  re 
markable  charges  on  record.  The  Reserve  Bri 
gade,  placed  there  by  no  act  of  the  commanding 
general,  but  by  the  foresight  of  its  commander, 
without  waiting  for  orders,  and  led  by  Colonel 
Opdyke  and  General  Stanley,  who  galloped  on  the 
field  at  that  moment,  charged  the  victorious  Con 
federates,  and,  though  suffering  fearful  loss,  drove 
them  with  the  bayonet  over  the  works,  leaving 
behind  them  hundreds  of  their  dead  and  wounded. 


268  Men  IT  Ao  Bared  the  Lnion. 

The  guns  were  turned  again  to  the  front  with  fatal 
effect  to  the  enemy. 

Again  and  again  Hood  sent  his  charging  columns 
against  the  Union  line,  but  in  vain,  and  when  night 
fell  upon  the  field,  five  of  his  generals  lay  dead 
before  the  intrenchments,  six  were  wounded,  while 
one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  fifty  enlisted  men 
were  killed  and  four  thousand  wounded. 

The  credit  of  this  victory  belongs  to  Stanley  and 
Opdyke,  and  to  General  Cox,  who  commanded  the 
Twenty-third  Corps.  As  for  Schofield,  he  was  across 
the  Harpath  two  miles  in  the  rear,  and  so  far  from 
the  country  being  indebted  to  him  for  any  display  of 
valor  or  foresight,  the  great  risk  and  danger  of  this 
action,  as  well  as  the  peril  at  Springhills  were  the 
result  of  his  failure  to  promptly  obey  the  orders  of 
General  Thomas. 

The  army  having  escaped  from  the  clutches  of 
Hood's  vastly  superior  force,  and  crossed  the  Har 
path  in  time  to  avoid  another  flanking  move  on  the 
part  of  the  Confederates,  was  now  drawn  within  the 
defences  of  Nashville,  and  the  preparations  which 
resulted  in  Hood's  total  overthrow  were  continued. 

Now  while  the  self-poise,  calm  courage,  and  great 
energy  of  General  Thomas  during  the  progTess  of 
tins  work  must  excite  the  admiration  of  all  who 
honor  true  manhood,  the  course  of  his  superiors 
in  command  can  only  give  rise  to  astonishment  and 
derision. 

Sherman,  hundreds  of  miles  away,  ignorant  of  the 


George  H.  Thomas.  269 

condition  of  affairs,  but  not  ignorant  of  the  fact  that 
Thomas  had  in  front  of  him  the  very  army  that  had 
held  a  hundred  thousand  veterans  under  his  own 
command  at  bay  for  months,  and  which  he  feared  to 
march  away  from  with  less  than  sixty  thousand 
trained  soldiers,  telegraphed : 

"Why  he  [Thomas]  did  not  turn  on  him  [Hood] 
at  Franklin  after  checking  and  discomfiting  him, 
surpasses  my  understanding." 

Why  Sherman  with  his  greatly  superior  forces 
did  not  "  turn  on  him  "  when  he  lay  within  reach  at 
Florence,  and  make  an  end  of  him,  before  going  on 
his  holiday  jaunt  to  Savannah,  surpasses  the  under 
standing  of  all  men  save  the  wilfully  blind,  self-con 
fident  chieftains  who  write  memoirs,  and  the  incom 
petent  adulators  who  indite  so-called  history. 

The  policy  of  General  Thomas  was  to  avoid  battle 
until  A.  J.  Smith's  troops  should  join  him,  and  his 
scattered  detachments  could  be  united.  Could  he 
have  concentrated  his  forces  at  Franklin  previous  to 
the  action  there,  he  would  have  risked  a  general  en 
gagement  and  doubtless  could  have  routed  and 
dispersed  Hood's  army  as  he  did  afterwards  at 
Nashville. 

However,  as  it  was,  the  1st  of  December  found 
General  Thomas,  with  all  the  forces  he  could  possibly 
gather  to  stay  the  Confederate  advance,  within  the 
fortifications  of  Nashville.  There  has  been  much 
writing  on  the  subject  of  the  comparative  strength 
of  the  armies  that  fought  the  battles  in  front  of  that 


2~0  Hen  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

city.  In  this  discussion  the  writers  of  memoirs  and 
alleged  history,  moved  by  petty  jealousy,  seem  to 
have  joined  hands  with  the  Confederate  general, 
Hood,  in  endeavoring-  to  account  for  his  overwhelm 
ing  defeat,  by  trying  to  augment  the  estimate  of  the 
forces  of  General  Thomas,  while  they  make  out  the 
Confederate  Army  as  small  as  possible. 

General  Thomas  estimated  Hood's  force  at  about 
fifty  thousand  men,  while  he  had,  of  all  arms,  includ 
ing  armed  citizen  employees,  newly  levied  recruits 
and  untried  colored  troops,  about  that  number  at 
Nashville,  where  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  he  did  not 
fight  the  Confederate  from  behind  intrenchments, 
but  marched  out  and  drove  him  from  his  own  in 
utter  rout.  Certain  it  is  that  Hood  marched  into 
Tennessee  with  the  very  army  that  had  given  Sher 
man  and  his  one  hundred  thousand  veterans  so  much 
trouble  between  Dalton  and  Atlanta,  intact  in  its 
organization,  and  slightly,  if  any,  reduced  in  num 
bers. 

After  Franklin  Hood  moved  in  pursuit  of  the  re 
treating  Nationals,  and  taking  up  his  position  on  the 
hills  in  front  of  Nashville,  with  his  flanks  extended 
toward  the  river  on  each  side,  threw  up  intrench 
ments.  Here,  holding  Thomas  at  bay,  he  proposed 
to  await  his  expected  reinforcements  from  beyond 
the  Mississippi,  and  then,  having  crushed  the  Union 
Army,  move  on  in  invasion  of  the  North. 

General  Thomas  addressed  himself  at  once  to  the 
task  of  drilling  and  consolidating  the  disconnected 


George  H.  Thomas.  271 

detachments  at  his  disposal,  and  forming-  them  into 
an  army.  In  this  he  succeeded  as  no  other  general 
could  have  succeeded,  and  yet,  at  no  time  from  first 
to  last,  did  he  have  what  could  be  called  an  army  in 
the  proper  meaning-  of  that  term.  His  command 
consisted  of  detachments  drawn  from  three  armies, 
some  of  which  had  been  widely  separated,  and  had 
never  campaigned  or  fought  tog-ether.  To  these  were 
added  new  recruits,  newly  levied  colored  troops,  and 
undrilled  armed  citizens.  The  men  of  these  different 
commands  had  not  been  cemented  together  by  the 
trials  and  dangers  of  war,  and  had  not  that  confi 
dence  in  each  other,  that  esprit  de  corps  that  makes 
thousands  as  one,  gives  an  army  enthusiasm,  and 
renders  it  invincible.  All  this  had  to  be  supplied 
and  infused  into  the  mass  by  the  will-power,  spirit, 
and  energy  of  the  commanding-  general.  General 
Thomas  accomplished  all  this,  and  that  in  the  face 
of  the  greatest  obstacles,  quietly,  with  unbending 
firmness,  and  unmoved  by  the  almost  insane  efforts 
of  his  superior  officers  to  force  him  into  action  be 
fore  his  army  was  prepared  for  the  struggle.  The 
nation  unquestionably  owes  more  to  the  unselfish, 
patriotic  devotion  and  immovable  firmness  of  George 
H.  Thomas  at  this  critical  moment  than  to  the  whole 
war  work  of  any  other  officer  who  wore  her  uniform 
during  the  civil  war. 

Patting  his  army  in  the  best  condition  possible  in 
the  limited  time  allowed  him,  General  Thomas  de 
clared  his  readiness  to  attack  the  enemy's  works  on 


2:2  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

the  tenth  clay  of  December,  but  to  use  his  own  words, 
"  a  terrible  storm  of  freezing"  rain,  covering  the  hills 
and  valleys  with  a  sleet  of  ice,"  bound  both  Confed 
erates  and  Nationals  to  their  camps.  It  was  impos 
sible  to  move  the  troops.  From  Richmond's  front 
and  from  Washing-ton  orders  to  attack  poured  in 
upon  him,  but  the  calm,  heroic  man  replied : 

"  I  have  troops  ready  to  make  the  attack  on  the 
enemy  as  soon  as  the  sleet  which  covers  the  ground 
has  melted  sufficiently  to  enable  the  men  to  march. 
.  .  .  It  is  utterly  impossible  for  the  troops  to 
ascend  the  slopes,  or  even  move  on  level  ground  in 
.anything1  like  order.  ...  I  believe  that  an  at 
tack  at  this  time  would  only  result  in  a  useless 
sacrifice  of  life." 

He  was  determined  not  to  throw  away  the  lives  of 
his  men.  The  authorities  seemed  frantic.  General 
Logan  was  sent  and  reached  Louisville  on  his  way  to 
relieve  Thomas,  and  Grant  himself  started  for  Nash 
ville.  But  the  Rock  of  Chickamauga  stood  firm. 
Thanks  to  Divine  Providence  the  friendly  sunshine 
arrived  before  the  distinguished  Logan,  or  his  greatly 
excited  chief.  The  ice  melted  and  General  Thomas, 
having  called  together  his  subordinates  and  explained 
his  plans,  and  having  everything  prepared  whatever 
might  be  the  result,  moved  away  from  the  fortifica 
tions  on  the  morning  of  Dec.  15th  to  a  victory  which, 
in  its  completeness  and  results,  was  one  of  the  most 
important  of  the  war,  and,  considering  the  vast  inter 
ests  at  stake,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  all  wars. 


George  H.  Thomas.  273 

Delivering-  a  feint  upon  the  enemy's  rig-lit,  General 
Thomas  moved  a  strong-  column  commanded  by 
General  A.  J.  Smith,  and  supported  by  Wilson's 
cavalry,  upon  his  left.  The  cavalry,  reaching-  the 
enemy's  rear  by  a  long  circuit,  dismounted  and  fell 
upon  him  at  the  same  instant  the  infantry  assaulted 
his  front.  The  advance  was  made  with  great  spirit 
and  vigor,  and  was  successful  at  every  point. 

Night  found  the  Confederates  defeated  in  every 
assault,  driven  from  their  lines,  and  forced  to  take 
up  and  fortify  a  new  position. 

The  16th  of  December  dawned  on  the  National 
Army  confident  of  victory,  and,  as  soon  as  the  en 
emy's  new  position  could  be  developed,  the  columns 
moved  to  the  attack.  The  assault  was  successful 
from  right  to  left.  The  Confederates  were  driven, 
routed  and  demoralized,  from  their  intrenchments ; 
thousands  threw  down  their  arms  and  surrendered, 
while  the  remainder  sought  safety  in  a  wild,  disor 
derly  flight,  abandoning-  arms  and  material  which 
strewed  the  roads  for  miles. 

General  Hood  himself,  speaking  of  this  rout,  says  : 

"  Our  line,  thus  pierced,  gave  wray.  Soon  there 
after  it  broke  at  all  points,  and  I  beheld  for  the  first 
and  only  time  a  Confederate  army  abandon  the  field 
in  confusion." 

As  for  the  cavalry,  the  delay  caused  by  the  re 
mounting  of  which  arm  was  so  condemned  by 
General  Grant,  i-ts  conduct  was  gallant  beyond 
precedent,  and  the  value  of  its  services  cannot  be 


274  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

overestimated.  Indeed  its  action  was  brilliant  in 
the  extreme  and  did  great  injury  to  the  enemy.  On 
the  16th  Hood  despatched  Chalmers :  "  For  God's 
sake  drive  the  Yankee  cavalry  from  our  left  or  all  is 
lost."  Thus  was  the  wisdom  of  General  Thomas' 
determined  effort  to  put  his  cavalry  in  fighting  trim 
before  battle  made  manifest  and  justified. 

In  fine,  not  to  indulge  in  detail,  the  victory  at  Nash 
ville  was  as  complete  over  the  envious  doubters  and 
critics  of  Thomas  as  over  Hood's  shattered  army. 

I  have  given  the  military  career  of  our  hero 
briefly  and  clearly  as  I  could  without  going  into  the 
mazes  of  detail  that  make  such  reading,  to  the 
average  reader,  a  tedious  study. 

One  looks  back  over  that  career  with  a  feeling  of 
wonder  and  admiration  mingled  with  no  little  indig 
nation.  It  is  passing  strange  to  see,  in  that  wild 
chaos  of  blunders  and  defeats,  the  work  of  incompe 
tent  pretenders,  one  man  winning1  continued  success 
and  achieving  great  results  for  his  Government,  and 
that  over  the  obstacles  thrown  in  his  way  by  those 
who  should  have  held  up  his  arms,  and  rejoiced  at 
his  success. 

"  The  tools  to  those  who  can  handle  them,"  said  a 
great  philosopher,  but  here  was  a  great  man  who 
made  the  tools  he  handled.  An  army  or  a  navy  is 
the  work  of  a  race  and  the  growth  of  generations. 

The  machinery  for  killing,  the  art  of  war,  is  not  a 
spontaneous  growth,  and  the  war  powers  that  have 
dominated  the  earth  have  come  to  be  such  through 


George,  H.  Thomas.  275 

long  training1.  This  is  what  the  great  Mirabeau  said 
to  the  French  Assembly  when  it  proposed  to  create  a 
navy  equal  to  that  of  Great  Britain  by  a  single  act 
of  legislation  : 

"  The  English  war  marine  has  grown  to  what  it  is, 
like  the  English  oak  of  which  the  ships  are  built, 
through  the  slow  process  of  a  thousand  years.  You 
cannot  have  a  navy  without  sailors,  and  sailors  are 
made  through  the  dangers  of  the  deep,  from  father 
to  son,  until  their  home  is  on  the  wave.  This  cannot 
be  done  by  an  act  of  legislation." 

We  Americans  had  been,  through  three  centuries, 
engaged  in  conquering  a  continent  from  the  wilds  of 
nature,  and  from  that  work  we  turned  to  the  civil 
pursuits  of  a  heal  thy  peace,  and  a  prosperity  that  was 
not  only  foreign  to  war,  but  in  direct  antagonism  to 
its  deadly  qualities.  When,  therefore,  our  civil  war 
came  so  unexpectedly  it  found  us  not  only  of  a  turn 
hostile  to  its  prosecution,  but  ignorant  of  all  its 
necessary  training  and  discipline.  In  our  struggle 
to  win  civilization  from  a  wilderness  we  had,  it  is 
true,  developed  a  heroic  manhood.  W^e  had,  there 
fore,  as  General  Thomas  said,  the  best  material  on 
earth  of  which  to  make  soldiers.  He  alone  of  all  our 
generals  took  in  and  appreciated  the  situation.  De 
voting  his  wonderful  personal  magnetism  and  great 
force  of  character,  to  say  nothing  of  his  patient  perse 
verance,  to  the  task,  he  built  up  about  him  an  army 
that  was  irresistible. 

I  know  that  it  is  wrong  to  mar  the  dignified 


276  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

march  of  human  affairs  by  the  intervention  of  hero- 
worship  for  an  individual  who,  after  all,  is  the  crea 
tion  and  not  the  creator.  The  whitecaps  that  mark 
the  coming1  storm  are  the  result,  and  not  the  cause 
of  the  commotion.  And  yet,  if  ever  a  man  lived  to 
justify  this  hero-worship  next  to  Abraham  Lincoln, 
George  H.  Thomas  was  that  man.  Most  men  are 
great  through  their  defects,  as  the  pearl  of  the  oys 
ter  is  from  a  diseased  secretion ;  so  great  traits  in 
great  men  are  mostly  the  evidence  of  an  unbalanced 
force,  bad  it  in  itself.  None  of  this  applies  to  General 
Thomas.  I  say,  without  hesitation,  that,  studying 
his  entire  life  minutely,  and  his  character  with  disin 
terested  calmness,  one  cannot  find  a  single  flaw,  or 
the  suspicion  of  a  taint.  He  suffers  from  this.  We 
are  told  that  the  real  magnificence  of  St.  Peter's  at 
Rome  is  lost  to  the  eye  through  its  perfect  propor 
tions.  General  Thomas'  character  was  so  well  bal 
anced,  all  the  parts  so  admirably  harmonized,  that 
he  failed  to  dazzle  the  crowd.  The  most  striking 
thing  about  him  was  his  constant  quietness  and  self- 
composure.  On  the  trembling  crisis  of  the  war, 
amid  the  roar  of  battle,  when  every  second,  almost, 
seemed  fraught  with  disaster  or  success,  he  stood 
unmoved,  with  all  his  faculties  as  much  under  con 
trol  as  the  army  he  had  trained.  The  next  trait 
that  strikes  us  was  the  man's  reserve.  He  seemed 
shy  and  solitary,  and,  perhaps,  lived  the  most  lonely 
life  ever  awarded  a  human  being*  upon  whom  rest 
ed  such  grave  responsibilities.  Any  attempted  en- 


George  H.  Thomas.  277 

croacliment  upon  this  by  the  crowd  was  met  by  a 
kindly  dignity,  while  the  praise  of  friends  so  embar 
rassed  him  that  it  became  painful  to  both. 

Looking-  back  over  the  events  of  those  four  years, 
now  that  time  has  cleared  away  much  of  the  preju 
dice  and  passion  that  blinds  the  world  to  the  true 
meaning-  of  these  events,  we  can  readily  see  that  had 
the  popular  military  heroes  been  put  in  the  field 
when  the  Confederacy  was  in  its  strength  they  would 
not  have  lasted  thirty  days.  But  the  Confederacy 
came  to  its  fall  as  rapidly  as  it  had  risen  into  pow 
er.  The  ten  millions  battling1  with  twenty-five 
millions,  with  the  resources  for  material  in  still 
greater  disproportion,  went  down,  after  the  battle 
of  Gettysburg-,  from  sheer  exhaustion,  victories  for 
the  North  became  possible,  and  so  common  men 
loomed  into  uncommon  proportions.  That  is  all 
of  the  story,  so  far  as  these  popular  favorites 
are  concerned.  But  we  know  now  that  if  General 
Thomas  had  been  put  in  command  of  our  armies  in 
the  beginning  of  the  war,  that  war  would  have  been 
shortened  by  two  years  without,  probably,  the  loss 
of  a  man  wantonly  and  uselessly  slaughtered  through 
the  imbecility  of  the  officer  at  the  head  of  the  armies. 

The  Government  that  gave  this  great  man  cold 
neglect  while  the  war  went  on,  continued  its  ingrat 
itude  after  the  war  had  ceased.  He  who  towered 
above  them  all,  whose  achievements  will  grow 
brighter  as  time  goes  on,  was  relegated  to  a  subor 
dinate  command  on  the  Pacific  coast.  He  accepted 


278  Men  Who  Saved  the  Union. 

this  treatment  as  he  had  accepted  all  former  slights, 
with  a  calm  dignity  that  not  only  forbade  com 
plaint,  but  seemed,  to  wipe  out  the  insult  of  neglect. 

George  H.  Thomas  was  not  a  politician,  and 
could  not  be  used  by  politicians.  He  could  not,  like 
Grant,  be  the  head  of  one  part}-,  nor  like  McClellan, 
the  idol  of  another.  The  war  in  which  he  had  been 
so  conspicuous  had  ended,  and  unless  he  sold  him 
self  to  one  or  the  other  of  the  political  organizations, 
there  was  nothing  left  him  but  the  quiet  of  an 
uneventful  life.  Efforts  were  made  by  many  of 
his  enthusiastic  friends  to  make  him  gifts  in  evidence 
of  their  admiration  and  gratitude.  He  said  in  refer 
ence  to  their  efforts  in  this  direction  : 

"If  you  have  anything  to  spare,  give  it  to  my 
men,  who  really  accomplished  all  for  which  you 
give  me  credit,  and  they  need  your  help." 

He  had  finished  his  work,  and  he  left  the  world  to 
make  such  record  as  the  world  saw  fit.  There  was 
only  one  moment  when  he  swerved  from  this,  and 
that  moment  was  his  dying  one.  Stung  to  the  quick 
by  the  printed  lies  that  aimed  to  elevate  unworthy 
inferiors  at  his  expense,  upon  the  strength  of  what  he 
had  accomplished,  he  seized  his  pen  to  remonstrate. 
Death  put  its  kind  hand  upon  his  great  heart,  and 
friends  found  him  seated  at  his  table,  his  head  resting 
upon  his  arm,  all  unconscious,  and  the  remonstrance 
unfinished. 

They  who  knew  him  best  and  loved  him  most,  his 
devoted  soldiers,  gathered  the  cannon  they  had  cap- 


George  H.  Thomas.  279 

tured,  and,  with  the  consent  of  the  Government, 
erected  a  bronze  monument  to  his  memory,  at  the 
capital  his  genius  did  so  much  to  save. 

The  work  of  genius  commemorating-  genius,  it 
stands  among  the  works  of  art  that  adorn  the 
National  Capital  as  he  stood  before  the  world  more 
perfect  than  all  the  rest.  Sitting  calm  as  was  his 
wont,  upon  a  steed  that  seems  trembling  with  power 
under  his  control,  he  appears  the  genius  of  Victory 
mastering  the  brute  forces  of  War. 

Thus  ends  the  story,  of  a  heroic  life  that  closes  like 
the  dying  strains  of  a  grand  opera,  through  which 
all  the  deepest,  sweetest,  and  most  lofty  emotions  of 
the  human  heart  have  been  thrilled  into  a  new  life, 
and  the  dreary  commonplaces  of  our  ordinary  being 
lifted  to  the  higher  plane  of  a  purer  and  more  perfect 
existence. 


APPENDIX. 


McCLELLAN'S    OWN    STOEY. 

SINCE  my  article  on  Stanton  went  to  print  a  book  has 
been  published  under  the  above  title.  It  is  made  up  of  a 
biographical  sketch,  written  by  W.  C.  Prime,  and  ex 
tracts  from  General  McClellan's  letters  to  his  wife. 

Mr.  Prime's  notion  of  a  life  seems  to  have  been  taken 
from  Macbeth,  where  the  royal  assassin  says  : 

"  Life's  but  a  walking  shadow  ;  a  poor  player, 
That  struts  and  frets  his  hour  upon  the  stage, 
And  then  is  heard  no  more  ;  it  is  a  tale 
Told  by  an  idiot,  full  of  sound  and  fury, 
Signifying-  nothing.'" 

One  gathers  from  it  that  McClellan  and  McClellan's 
hundred  thousand  men  lived  by  the  consent  of  Stanton, 
and  that  Stanton  was  a  weak,  bad  man. 

A  man's  greatness  can  be  measured  by  his  enemy.  "We 
are  all  born  to  have  a  giant  to  kill,  and  as  a  man  selects 
his  giant  he  instinctively  takes  one  giving  him  some  chance 
of  success.  To  benefit  the  memory  of  McClellan,  Mr.  Prime 
should  have  augmented  his  giant,  instead  of  seeking  to  be 
little  him,  for  the  world  knows  that  McClellan  did  not 
destroy  Stanton.  But  Stanton  was  not  the  young  Napo 
leon's  giant ;  a  gentleman  by  the  name  of  Lee  held,  for  a 
brief  space,  that  position,  and  he  made  short  work  of  our 
great  organizer. 

One  rises  from  a  reading  of  "McClellan's  Own  Story" 
with  a  feeling  of  depression.  It  is  of  sorrow  for  the  author. 
It  were  better  for  his  memory  had  he  left  his  story  all  un- 


Appendix.  281 

told.  As  the  matter  stood  in  the  popular  mind,  he  appeared 
a  rather  strong  man,  who  went  out  with  a  huge  army, 
fought  his  way  to  within  sight  of  the  Confederate  capital, 
and,  although  defeated  and  driven  back,  yet  towered  up  as 
a  military  hero,  who,  after  all  these  fearful  disasters,  was 
solicited  by  the  Government  to  again  take  command,  and 
closed  his  military  career  with  the  drawn  battle  of  Antie- 
tam.  We  all  know  what  the  Confederacy  was  when  he 
did  this  fighting.  The  belief  is  reasonable  that  had  the 
latter-day  saints,  Grant  and  Sherman,  been  in  command 
at  that  time,  the  result  would  have  been  more  disastrous 
than  it  was. 

"McClellan's  Own  Story"  destroys  all  these  conclusions 
in  his  favor.  We  are  awakened  to  the  fact  that  he  was  a 
weak  man,  cautious  almost  to  cowardice.  I  mean  by  this 
that  he  lacked  that  high  quality  known  as  moral  courage. 
His  one  plea,  put  forward  at  the  beginning,  and  dwelt  upon 
to  the  last,  is  based  upon  the  monstrous  assertion  that  Lin 
coln  was  an  imbecile,  controlled  by  Stanton,  Chase,  and 
Seward,  and  that  these  three,  especially  Stanton,  hated  him 
so  intensely  that  they  were  all  the  time  interfering  to  de 
feat  his  army,  in  order  that  they  might  destroy  him.  The 
world  is  not  prepared  for  this,  and  the  world  were  a  bed 
lam  could  such  assertion  prevail ;  and  yet,  eliminate  this 
from  the  book,  and  nothing  remains.  Of  course,  no  one  is 
called  on  to  combat  such  a  wild  assertion.  We  are  saved 
even  a  denial.  Left  standing,  it  tells  the  melancholy  fact 
that  George  B.  McClellaii  was  a  singularly  weak  man  ; 
one  that  nothing  but  West  Point  could  have  made  possible 
under  the  circumstances.  These  circumstances  make  one 
shudder.  Not  only  were  a  hundred  thousand  brave  fel 
lows  subjected  to  peril  at  the  hands  of  such  a  man,  but  the 
Government  itself  was  on  the  brink  of  destruction. 

McClellan  took  command  at  Washington  on  the  27th 
day  of  July,  1861,  and  never  moved  his  army  until  March, 
1862. 


282  Appendix. 

During  all  this  time  he  was  said  to  be  organizing,  and  it 
is  claimed  for  him  that  he  was  a  great  military  organizer. 
Let  us  see :  The  troops  came  to  Washington  in  regiments. 
These  he  assigned  to  brigades,  and  formed  brigades  into 
divisions.  This  any  man  could  have  accomplished  in  a 
month.  To  clothe,  equip,  and  provide  tents  and  transpor 
tation  for  a  hundred  thousand  men  was  the  work  of  the 
Quartermaster-General,  and  General  Van  Vleit  did  this 
work,  and  did  it  admirably.  What  remained  was  merely 
the  drill,  and  this  the  troops  never  got.  Yet  it  is  hardly 
fair  to  hold  McClellan  responsible  for  this.  The  armed 
conflict  came  suddenly  upon  a  people  unused  to  war,  and 
all  the  business  of  preparing  men  for  war  was  new  and 
strange  to  us.  The  volunteers  elected  their  officers,  and  the 
officers  so  elected  were  as  ignorant  of  military  tactics  as 
were  their  constituents.  As  I  have  said  elsewhere,  all  that 
is  taught  at  West  Point  is  the  drill  of  the  private.  There 
is  nothing  else  of  war  to  teach.  The  West  Point  drill-ser 
geants  were  all  made  generals,  and  this  left  the  army  of 
raw  recruits  without  the  most  necessary  part  of  its  organi 
zation. 

One  marvels  at  McClellaii's  long  delay.  Had  the  forces 
opposed  to  him  been  well-disciplined  veterans,  there  would 
have  been  some  object  in  the  weary  preparations  attempted. 
But  the  Confederates  were  as  raw  as  our  own  militia,  al 
though  they  were  far  more  disposed  to  take  the  initiative 
than  we  were.  The*  great  evil  wrought  in  this  delay  came 
from  McClellan's  methods.  These  destroyed  the  little 
morale  our  army  possessed.  Satisfied  that  he  was  not  pre 
pared  for  war,  his  main  effort  consisted  in  keeping  the 
peace.  One  order  came  to  be  familiar,  and  that  was  not  to 
bring  on  an  engagement,  while  daily  bulletins  assured  the 
waiting  world  that  all  was  quiet  on  the  Potomac.  Exag 
gerating  in  his  own  cautious,  if  not  timid,  mind  the  strength 
of  the  enemy,  he  infused  among  his  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  men  the  f ear  of  some  awful  danger  that  lay  coiled 


Appendix.  283 

and  ready  to  strike  immediately  beyond  Munson's  Hill. 
When  that  little  affair  at  Ball's  Bluff  occurred,  in  which 
the  gallant  Baker  fell,  and  his  command  was  cut  to  pieces, 
although  a  huge  force,  that  might  have  come  to  his  relief, 
was  lying  within  striking  distance,  a  feeling  of  alarm  settled 
upon  army  and  Government  ;  and  instead  of  a  court  of  in 
quiry,  called  to  ascertain  why  these  men  were  left  to  be 
slaughtered,  the  young  Napoleon  was  sympathized  with, 
because  his  general  order  not  to  bring  on  engagements  had 
been  treated  with  such  indifference. 

The  best,  indeed  the  only  discipline  to  give  raw  recruits 
was  to  be  found  in  daily  skirmishing  with  the  enemy.  Had 
we  been  given  a  dozen,  or,  if  possible,  a  hundred  Ball's 
Bluffs,  our  volunteers  would  have  learned  the  one  impor 
tant  lesson  that  comes  of  experience  under  fire  ;  so  that, 
when  the  time  came  to  move  the  army,  it  would  have  been 
an  army  of  veterans.  McClellaii  succeeded  only  in  keeping 
it  a  militia,  and  cultivated  the  dread  of  an  unknown  foe, 
until  to  a  lack  of  drill  was  added  a  woful  lack  of  morale. 

And  now  we  learn  from  "  McClellan's  Own  Story," 
honestly  told,  that  all  this  time,  during  all  this  weary  wait 
ing,  he  was  solving  a  grand  scheme  for  a  campaign,  so 
subtle,  original,  and  bold  that  he  dared  not  submit  it  to  his 
Government.  There  existed  an  ignorance  on  the  part  of 
the  Administration  that  almost  justifies  the  contempt  shown 
on  the  part  of  McClellaii.  Upon  the  common  fact,  so  gen 
erally  recognized,  of  exaggerating  the  unknown,  the  civil 
ians  called  to  power  jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  war  is  a 
science  that,  like  law  or  medicine,  has  to  be  taught,  and 
that  the  choicest  intellect  would  be  at  a  loss  in  applying  its 
rules,  unless  first  carefully  trained  and  instructed.  We 
have  not  yet  learned  that  beyond  the  mere  school  of  the 
soldier  there  is  nothing  to  learn,  and  the  ablest  graduate  of 
West  Point  has  been  taught  nothing,  useful  in  battle,  that 
the  private,  if  well  drilled,  does  not  possess. 

That  ignorance  of  the  situation  existed  in  Washington 


Ub4  Appendix. 

accounts  for  President  Lincoln  and  his  Secretary  of  War 
dancing  attendance  on  a  full-breasted,  epauletted  specimen 
of  the  weakest  commonplace  accident  ever  called  to  power. 
The  President  very  respectfully  asked  the  confidence  of  his 
general,  and  got,  in  return,  a  solemn  shake  of  the  head. 
The  President  could  not  be  trusted,  and  yet  all  that  the  sol 
emn  shake  of  the  head  carried  was  a  campaign  that  had 
Richmond  for  its  objective  point.  Now,  Richmond  was  a 
place  of  no  strategic  or  political  importance.  It  could  have 
been  occupied  by  our  Government  without  fetching  us  any 
nearer  to  a  solution  of  the  questions  involved  in  the  war. 
It  was  different  with  our  capital,  the  loss  of  which  to  us 
meant  foreign  intervention.  It  would  have  been  a  fact, 
conclusive  in  the  eyes  of  foreign  governments,  that  we  had 
failed  in  our  attempt  to  subjugate  the  South.  As  for  Rich 
mond,  as  Wendell  Phillips  said  so  tersely,  "Lee  carried 
Richmond  at  his  saddle-bow."  To  defeat  Lee  was  not  only 
to  capture  Richmond,  but  to  end  the  war. 

The  young  Napoleon  of  the  Grand  Duchess  of  Gherol- 
stein  summed  up  the  art  of  war  when  he  said  that  his  plan  of 
campaign  was  "to  find  the  enemy  and  whip  him."  The 
enemy  was  McClellan's  true  objective  point,  and  one  mar 
vels  why  he  should  have  moved  his  vast  army  over  a  detour 
of  three  hundred  miles,  by  land  and  water,  at  an  enormous 
expense,  to  find  his  enemy,  when  that  enemy  was  at  his 
front,  on  the  Potomac.  If  he  were  defeated  there,  such  de 
feat  would  throw  him  back  011  his  line  of  supplies  ;  and  if 
victorious,  he  would  cut  the  enemy's  source  of  supply  and 
drive  him  to  the  sea. 

Long  after  this  the  Government  awakened  to  the  neces 
sity  of  this  sort  of  campaign,  and  Grant,  with  a  hundred 
and  forty  thousand  veterans,  was  put  upon  a  line  on  which 
he  said  he  would  fight  it  out  if  it  took  all  summer.  The 
summer  came  to  a  sudden  end  in  the  Wilderness,  into  which 
our  general  tumbled  an  army  he  had  not  the  ability  to  han 
dle.  With  a  hundred  and  forty  thousand  men  our  ' '  greatest 


Appendix.  285 

general  of  the  nineteenth  ceiitur}^"  could  have  put  in  sixty 
thousand  to  be  slaughtered  by  Lee,  who  only  had  that  num 
ber,  while  with  the  remaining  eighty  thousand  he  flanked 
the  Confederates.  But  the  general,  who  scorned  strategy, 
and  believed  in  continual  "hammering,"  suddenly  aban 
doned  the  "hammering"  on  the  summer  line,  and  swung 
over  to  that  made  memorable  by  McClellan. 

The  water-line  was  more  available  to  Grant  than  it  had 
been  for  the  young  Napoleon,  for  the  ironclads  invented  by 
Fremont  made  the  water-courses  admirable  highways  for 
our  armies.  A  few  such  off  Yorktown  would  have  enabled 
McClellan  to  move  on  toward  Richmond  without  the  delay 
that  came  of  earthworks  and  siege-guns  to  reduce  the 
enemy's  fortifications. 

The  sudden  and  rapid  transit  of  a  hundred  and  ten  thou 
sand  troops,  due  to  the  energy  and  intelligence  of  General 
Van  Vleit,  evidently  surprised  the  Confederates,  and  made 
the  stand  at  Yorktown  a  necessity,  to  enable  them  to  con 
centrate  their  available  forces  before  Richmond.  This  being 
accomplished,  they  fell  back  in  good  order,  easily  defeating 
McClellan' s  pursuing  forces  at  Williamsburgh. 

Why  this  movement  should  have  been  made  was  as  much 
a  mystery  to  the  Confederate  Government  as  the  ease  and 
rapidity  of  its  accomplishment  were  a  surprise.  The  stand 
at  Yorktown  had,  therefore,  to  be  made.  Had  McClellan 
known  how  thin  was  the  line  opposed  to  him,  he  would 
have  tumbled  his  troops  over  the  hastily-constructed  works 
before  the  heavy  rains  that,  following  heavy  cannonading, 
had  swelled  that  sluggish  stream,  the  Chickahomiiiy,  to  the 
size  of  a  formidable  river.  But  the  trouble  with  McClellan 
was  a  regular,  habitual  exaggeration  of  the  strength  of  the 
forces  opposed  to  him.  There  has  appeared,  at  the  same 
time  with  "  McClellan's  Own  Story,"  "  Long's  Life  of  Lee," 
and,  reading  the  two  books  together,  we  have  light  from 
both  sides  thrown  upon  the  situation,  and  learn  that  the 
Confederate  general  had  eighty  thousand  men  to  oppose 
the  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand  under  McClellan. 


286  Appendix. 

Dragging-  his  heavy  guns  over  roads  rendered  almost  im 
passable  by  rains,  marching  his  troops  ankle-deep  in  mud, 
McClellan  reached  the  Chickahominy,  and  on  that  insignifi 
cant  stream  broke  the  back  of  his  army,  by  getting  one-half 
over  just  as  the  sudden  rain  swept  away  the  rude  bridges, 
leaving  the  other  half  as  harmless  to  the  enemy  as  though 
it  had  been  within  the  fortifications  at  Washington.  The 
Confederates  were  not  slow  to  avail  themselves  of  this  op 
portunity,  and,  concentrating  their  entire  army,  fell  upon 
the  half  within  reach  and  brought  the  advance  on  Rich 
mond  to  a  disastrous  close. 

McClellan  claims  that  this  came  of  McDowell  and  his 
forty  thousand  men  being  withdrawn  from  his  command. 
Looking  calmly  over  the  ground,  one  cannot  see  that  Mc 
Dowell  could  have  prevented  this  catastrophe  had  he  been 
subject  to  McClellan's  orders.  It  is  more  than  doubtful 
whether  a  junction  of  the  two  commands  could  have  been 
effected  in  time  to  save  the  helpless  forces  on  the  Chicka 
hominy.  Taking  our  armies  in  detail,  the  active,  enterpris 
ing  enemy  could  have  ended  the  war  by  the  capture  of  our 
capital.  General  McClellan  should  not  have  complained 
of  the  Government  for  exercising  the  same  caution  for 
which  he  was  himself  distinguished. 

The  seven  days1  fighting,  or  rather  retreating  toward  the 
James,  with  enough  loss  of  material  to  arm  and  equip  Lee's 
army,  ended  with  the  battle  of  Malvern  Hill,  where  a  few 
subordinate  officers  and  one-third  of  our  army  almost  anni 
hilated  the  enemy.  Had  McClellan  followed  up  this  ad 
vantage,  he  could  have  reorganized  his  army  within  the 
corporate  limits  of  Richmond.  We  have  it  from  "Long's 
Life  of  Lee  "  that  the  Confederate  general,  being  a  pious 
man,  thanked  God  for  every  day  given  him  to  fortify  and 
place  his  shattered  forces  in  a  position  for  defence. 

Another  grave  charge  made  in  this  story  of  the  imitation 
Napoleon  is  that  the  Government  put  a  stop  to  recruiting 
at  a  time  when,  in  desperation,  he  was  calling  for  rein- 


Appendix.  287 

forcements.  Secretary  Stanton  learned  from  Secretary 
Chase  that  the  Government  was  straining  its  credit  to  the 
breaking  point,  and  this  weakening  of  our  credit  by  defeat 
brought  our  resources  dangerously  near  the  end.  Capital, 
ever  cautious,  had  no  touch  of  patriotism,  and  all  the  Gov 
ernment  was  capable  of  doing  began  and  ended  in  an  ap 
peal  to  the  laborers  who  gave  their  toil  and  bodies  to  the 
service.  Again,  what  a  general  who  required  eight  months 
to  organize  an  army  could  expect  to  do  with  raw  recruits 
the  author  of  his  "Own  Story  "  fails  to  tell. 

McClellan  made  a  continuation  of  his  operations  on  the 
James  dependent  on  a  fresh  supply  of  troops.  He  wanted 
McDowell's  command,  and  the  Government,  that  had  seen 
his  huge  army  driven  back,  lacked  the  confidence  neces 
sary  to  uncovering  Washington,  in  order  to  trust  all  in  his 
incompetent  hands.  General  Grant,  in  his  "Memoirs,"  ex 
presses  his  opinion,  by  implication,  that  McClellan  should 
have  been  trusted,  and  pronounces  Stanton  a  poor,  timid 
creature  for  hesitating  to  comply.  We  can  only  say  that  if 
Grant  had  been  in  command  at  the  time  no  such  emergency 
could  have  arisen.  The  campaign  that  left  a  highway  of 
human  bones,  furnished  by  our  brave  men,  between  the 
Rapidaii  and  Richmond,  where  the  thinned  ranks  and  ex 
hausted  resources  of  the  Confederacy  presented  only  the 
skeleton  of  an  army,  tells  a  story  that  destroys  General 
Grant's  power  as  a  military  critic. 

The  Government  could  furnish  no  more  food  for  powder 
to  the  impatient  general,  and  both  he  and  his  army  were 
withdrawn  from  the  James  at  a  ruinous  sacrifice,  and  all 
returned  again  to  the  fortifications  at  Washington  ;  and 
there  occurred  an  event  which  "  McClellan 's  Own  Story" 
fails  to  justify,  or  even  explain.  Upon  the  withdrawal  of 
our  army  from  the  James,  Lee  hurried  his  entire  force 
of  eighty  thousand  men  to  the  Rapidaii,  for  the  purpose  of 
overwhelming  the  troops  under  Pope  before  McClellan 
could  come  to  the  rescue.  When  the  great  Confederate 


283  Appendix. 

chief  found  himself  face  to  face  with  Pope's  army,  to  ac 
complish  which  he  had  marched  rapidly,  he  was  guilty  of 
the  strangest  false  manoeuvre  ever  put  to  military  record. 
He  divided  his  army  in  two,  and  sent  one-half  through 
Thoroughfare  Gap,  to  the  rear  of  Pope.  He  lost  three  days 
at  a  time  when  every  hour  held  the  fate  of  the  Confeder 
acy,  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  awakened  to  the  fact  that, 
instead  of  overwhelming  Pope,  he  had  completely  reversed 
conditions,  and  put  half  of  his  army  in  between  Pope  and 
McClellan.  The  half  he  held  on  Pope's  front  was  not 
within  supporting  distance  of  the  apparently  doomed  men 
so  strangely  thrown  into  the  trap,  and  had  McClellan  co 
operated  with  Pope  and  closed  in  on  the  Confederates,  they 
would  have  been  doomed,  and  the  war  ended  on  the  same 
battlefield  where  it  began. 

McClellan  was  at  Alexandria,  and  the  larger  part  of  his 
army  was  in  position  to  move.  One  reads  the  telegrams 
and  orders  between  the  Government  and  the  general  with 
amazement  and  indignation.  To  the  almost  frantic  appeals 
of  the  Government  to  hurry  forward  his  forces  there  came 
responses  so  insolent  that  they  are  hard  to  believe.  When 
he  coolly  advised  the  Government  to  let  Pope  get  out  of 
his  scrape  as  best  he  could,  the  young  Napoleon  should 
have  been  shot  by  a  drum-head  court-martial.  The  roar 
of  the  terrible  conflict  was  in  his  ears,  and  it  was  not  Pope, 
but  the  thousands  of  brave  fellows  under  him,  who  were 
being  killed  or  mangled  in  a  vain  struggle  that  might  have 
been  made  a  startling  victory. 

As  it  was,  Longstreet,  by  forced  marches,  arrived  in  time 
to  succor  Jackson  and  turn  a  disastrous  affair,  on  the  part 
of  Lee,  into  a  victory.  The  only  part  of  McClellan's  army 
that  reached  the  field  in  time  to  be  of  service  was  the  corps 
under  Fitz-John  Porter,  and  he  refused  co-operation  at  a 
time  when  it  was  of  vital  importance.  Had  he  made  a 
demonstration,  instead  of  lying  idle  all  of  the  29th,  he  would 
have  defeated  Stonewall  Jackson,  for  he  was  on  the  flank 


Appendix.  289 

of  the  rebel  forces.  Or  if,  as  he  claims,  Long-street  had 
arrived,  and  was  at  his  front,  he  would  have  made  that  fact 
clear,  and  have  given  Pope  the  light  he  needed  to  cause 
him  to  fall  back  behind  Centreville.  Fitz-Jolm  Porter  was 
tried  by  the  court  that  condemned,  and  the  court  that  ac 
quitted,  on  certain  orders  Pope  had  sent  him.  These  or 
ders  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  issue.  His  duty 
as  a  soldier  was  in  the  unwritten  laws  of  war  To  under 
stand  this,  let  the  reader  suppose  for  a  moment  that  Mc- 
Clellan  had  held  the  place  filled  by  Pope,  would  this  man 
Porter  have  waited  for  orders  ?  He  was  brave  and  capable, 
but  the  same  disloyal  spirit  his  chief  showed  in  the  tele 
grams  from  Alexandria  held  his  subordinate  to  a  sneering 
indifference  and  inaction,  while  his  comrades  were  being 
slaughtered  to  no  purpose. 

That,  after  all  this,  McClellan  should  have  been  rein 
stated  in  his  command,  only  goes  to  show  the  state  of  dis 
tress  to  which  the  Government  was  reduced.  McClellan 
was  fairly  worshipped  by  his  troops,  but  this  popularity  he 
had  gained  at  the  expense  of  the  Government.  The  man 
who,  through  all  his  story,  speaks  contemptuously  of  ' '  the 
poor  creatures,"  Lincoln,  Stanton,  and  Chase,  and  laments 
the  unhappy  condition  of  his  country  as  subject  to  such 
malignant  imbeciles,  had  taught  his  soldiers  this  ;  and,  in 
addition,  that  this  Abolition  Administration  at  Washington 
had  abandoned  them  to  their  fate.  This  feeling  was  so  rife 
among  the  rank  and  file  that  when  President  Lincoln  vis 
ited  the  army  on  the  James,  it  was  feared  that  he  would  be 
insulted,  and  orders  were  issued  for  the  troops  to  cheer  on 
his  appearance.  It  was  necessary  to  fetch  the  army  back 
to  the  fortifications  of  Washington  before  venturing  to 
change  commanders,  and  when  the  army  was  before  Wash 
ington  the  President  feared  a  mutiny,  should  he  remove 
McClellan,  and  it  certainly  would  have  occurred  had  an 
attempt  been  made  to  supersede  him  with  Pope,  a  man 
whose  military  capability  and  patriotism  put  him  head  and 


290  Appendix. 

shoulders  above  McClellan  and  his  group  of  West  Point 
ers. 

Looked  at  from  a  purely  military  point  of  view,  there 
was  no  necessity  for  superseding  McClellan.  He  was  cer 
tainly  superior  to  his  immediate  successors,  Burnside, 
Hooker,  and  Meade,  and  compared  favorably  with  the  ma 
jority  of  commanders  distinguished  in  the  war.  Except 
Thomas  and  Rosecrans,  all  learned  the  art  of  war  through 
defeat.  It  was  an  awful  school,  built  on  bones  and  cemented 
with  the  best  blood  of  the  country,  but  it  was  accepted.  The 
blood  and  bones  are  nearly  forgotten.  The  vast  cemeteries 
of  silent  dead  serve  a  purpose,  when  visited  once  a  year  to 
strew  flowers  over  the  humble  graves,  but  the  nation  thinks 
only  of  the  few  leaders  who  won  monuments  through 
incapacity. 

However,  the  memory  of  McClellan  survives  the  war 
in  glory  because  he  was  a  Democrat,  precisely  as  Grant  has 
his  monument  in  the  hearts  of  the  Republicans  for  that  he 
loaned  his  name  to  secure  a  perpetuation  of  their  power. 
The  greater  man  than  either,  the  grandest  soldier  of  all, 
George  Henry  Thomas,  has  dust  gathering  on  his  humble 
tomb,  because  he  scorned  the  dirty  arena  where  such  repu 
tations  were  made. 

McClellan  can  be  summed  up  in  few  words. 

He  had  the  egotism  of  a  weak  character,  that  he  and  his 
friends  mistook  for  the  confidence  of  genius.  This  made 
him  arrogant  on  parade  and  timid  in  the  presence  of  a  grave 
responsibility.  He  habitually  magnified  obstacles  into  im 
possibilities,  and  deferred  great  deeds  to  a  future  that  had  no 
possibility.  A  brave  soldier,  he  made  a  timid  general,  and 
thus  when  he  broke  the  back  of  his  huge  army  on  the 
Chickahominy,  he  stood  resolutely  by  the  half  not  engaged, 
and  while  the  battle  of  Malvern  Hill  was  raging  he  consult 
ed  maps  and  planned  campaigns  in  a  gunboat  on  the  James. 

McClellan  would  have  been  continued  in  command  had 
he  confined  himself  to  his  military  duties.  But  he  had  an 


Appendix.  291 

evil  genius  unknown  to  himself  and  unknown  to  both 
friends  and  enemies.  At  Cincinnati,  shortly  after  being 
called  from  civil  life  to  the  camp,  McClellan  selected  the 
Hon.  Stanley  Mathews,  then  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Cin 
cinnati,  now  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  to  serve  on  his  staff  as  Judge  Advocate.  When  this 
became  known,  and  before  Judge  Mathews  had  accepted 
the  place,  Judge  Thomas  M.  Key  approached  the  newly- 
selected  Judge  Advocate,  with  a  request  that  he  would  de 
cline  in  his  favor.  Judge  Mathews  complied,  and  Key  was 
thus  brought  in  personal  contact  with  the  man  he  was  to 
dominate. 

How  strangely  human  events  seem  to  turn  on  trifles  ! 
Had  Judge  Mathews  refused  to  give  way,  McClellan  would 
not  have  been  saved  the  terrible  defeats  011  the  Chickahom- 
iny,  but,  like  all  the  others,  save  Thomas  and  Rosecrans,  he 
would  have  been  permitted  to  learn  the  art  of  war  through 
defeat,  instead  of  being  summarily  dismissed  for  having 
tried  the  role  of  political  oracle  and  dictator  to  the  Adminis 
tration. 

A  native  of  Kentucky,  Thomas  M.  Key  was  imbued  from 
birth  with  the  peculiar  traits  of  the  South  ;  but,  while  im 
pulsive  in  his  ways,  differed  from  his  associates  in  being  a 
student.  To  his  naturally  great  ability  he  added  wide  and 
varied  stores  of  knowledge.  Called  to  the  Superior  Court 
of  Cincinnati,  at  an  early  age  for  such  a  position,  he  won 
the  respect  of  the  bar  by  the  dignity  of  his  bearing,  his  sin 
gular  legal  acumen,  and  the  courage  of  his  decisions.  He 
procured  position  on  McClelland  staff,  and  not  only  Avon 
the  confidence  of  his  general,  but,  from  an  eccentricity  of 
genius,  sought  to  lose  himself  in  the  man.  He  seemed  sat 
isfied  in  this  self-immolation  through  the  sense  of  power  it 
gave,  and  the  strong  assertion  of  the  peculiar  views  with 
which  the  confidential  aid  was  penetrated. 

General  McClellan  was  a  Democrat  because  he  was  a 
West  Pointer.  That  little  school  on  the  Hudson  was,  as  I 


292  Appendix. 

have  said  elsewhere,  more  of  a  social  than  a  military  affair. 
As  we  copied  the  organization  of  our  army  from  the  Eng 
lish,  whose  born  aristocracy  furnished  officers,  we  sought 
to  make  an  aristocracy  through  a  school,  where  the  cadet 
should  graduate  into  a  command,  with  a  great  gulf  fixed 
between  himself  and  the  private  soldier.  As  the  South,  be 
fore  the  late  war,  furnished  us  with  our  social  aristocracy, 
and  as  the  South  was  Democratic,  the  officer  gravitated  into 
that  political  condition.  Of  the  traditions,  teachings,  and 
principles  of  the  Democratic  party  McClellan  knew  as  little 
as  any  other  West  Point  graduate. 

A  brilliant  conversationalist,  Key  was,  at  the  same  time, 
a  charming  companion,  two  qualities  seldom  found  in  the 
same  person.  The  suggestive  mind  given  to  expression  in 
talk  is  apt  to  bore  the  listener  with  a  persistency  of  views 
that  either  weary  or  offend.  Key  had  the  subtle  flattery  of 
a  listening  face.  He  practised  this  on  McClellan,  not  be 
cause  of  McClellan's  superior  rank,  for  at  the  time  he  was 
only  a  militia  general,  having  been  selected  by  the  Gover 
nor  of  Ohio  to  organize  the  State  volunteers.  It  was  the 
practice  of  Key's  life  to  listen  much  and  talk  little.  He  felt 
the  truth  of  the  saying,  attributed  to  Mirabeau,  that  to  suc 
ceed  in  life  one  must  be  content  to  learn  from  those  who 
know  less  on  a  given  subject  than  the  listener.  Key  soon 
possessed  and  controlled  McClellan  without  the  soldier's 
being  aware  of  his  lost  identity.  He  died  in  this  ignorance, 
and  the  man  speaking  through  him,  and  who  proved  his 
ruin,  was  as  unknown  to  his  victim  as  he  is  to  the  world. 

McClellan  became  a  Key  Democrat,  and  it  was  a  strange 
mixture  of  Abolitionism,  States'  rights,  patriotism,  and  a  love 
of  the  South.  Key  wanted  the  Southern  armies  defeated 
and  the  States  recognized  as  they  were  before  the  war.  He 
sought  to  free  the  slaves  and  compensate  the  masters.  He 
upheld  the  Government,  but  despised  Lincoln,  Stan  ton,  and 
Seward ;  in  a  word,  he  had  a  deep-seated  contempt  for  the 
Administration. 


Appendix.  293 

I  am  giving  from  letters  and  memory  the  peculiar  opin 
ions  of  Key,  and  the  reader  can  verify  them  by  examining 
"  McClellan's  Own  Story."  He  can  find  them,  more  espe 
cially,  condensed  in  that  extraordinary  letter  which  the  de 
feated  general  gave  with  liis  own  hand  to  the  President  at 
Harrison's  Bar.  One  reads  of  that  incident  and  studies  that 
letter  with  amazement,  not  unmingled  with  amusement. 
That  a  man  of  McClellan's  calibre  should  take  upon  himself 
the  task  of  teaching  Abraham  Lincoln  his  political  duties 
fills  one  with  a  sense  of  the  ludicrous,  and  laughter  is  only 
restrained  by  the  gravity  of  the  assumption.  The  general, 
coming  forth  from  fields  of  defeat,  takes  on  himself  all  the 
duties  of  the  Government  which  he  has  so  grievously  em 
barrassed. 

This  has  but  one  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  war,  and 
that  occurred  when  General  Sherman,  the  hero  of  disaster, 
undertook  to  settle  all  the  complicated  terms  of  reconstruc 
tion,  in  accepting  the  surrender  of  Johnson's  army. 

The  press  of  the  United  States,  always  silly  when  excited, 
made  McClellan  a  great  man  in  the  eyes  of  his  army.  It  was 
Key,  aided  by  McClellan's  military  household,  that  supple 
mented  this  with  a  contempt  and  hatred  for  the  Administra 
tion.  The  soldiers  were  taught  to  regard  the  authorities  at 
Washington  as  nothing  other  than  a  nest  of  Abolitionists, 
that  had  abandoned  them  to  disease  and  death  upon  the 
James  ;  willing  to  consign  them  to  destruction,  that  their 
beloved  leader  might  be  removed.  Small  wonder  that  these 
poor  fellows  scowled  at  President  Lincoln,  and  could  scarcely 
be  restrained  from  open  insult,  while  they  cheered  to  the 
echo  their  general,  as  he  dashed  along  their  ranks,  physically 
a  superb  specimen  of  epauletted  greatness. 

Matters  grew  serious  in  this  direction.  The  reader  who 
doubts  has  only  to  turn  to  "  McClellan's  Own  Story,"  and  he 
will  find  every  page  bristling  with  assertions  and  assump 
tions  in  the  way  I  indicate.  Key  himself  grew  alarmed.  He 
told  me,  long  after  those  days,  that,  while  on  the  James,  he 


294  Appendix. 

and  McClellan  were  riding  in  from  a  visit  to  a  distant  camp, 
where  the  soldiers,  breaking-  ranks,  had  crowded  about  him, 
filling  the  air  with  cheers,  when,  after  a  long  silence,  Mc 
Clellan  said : 

' '  How  these  brave  fellows  love  me,  and  what  a  power  that 
love  places  in  my  hands !  What  is  there  to  prevent  my 
taking  the  Government  in  my  own  hands  ? " 

Key  was  startled,  and  hastened  to  say:  "  General,  don't 
mistake  those  men.  So  long  as  you  lead  them  against  the 
enemy,  they  will  adore  and  die  for  you  ;  but  attempt  to  turn 
them  against  their  Government,  and  you  will  be  the  first  to 
suffer." 

The  answer  irritated  McClellan.  He  replied  with  his 
spurs,  urging  his  horse  into  a  gallop,  and  leaving  Key,  with 
his  inferior  mount,  to  follow  as  he  might.  Both  Key  and  the 
Government  were  unnecessarily  alarmed.  Crimes  classify 
themselves,  not  only  by  the  inclination,  but  the  ability  of  the 
criminals.  A  sneak-thief  is  not  a  burglar,  nor  is  a  burglar 
intuitively  a  murderer.  McClellan  was  not  the  sort  of  man 
to  endanger  the  Government  by  treason,  for  he  came  near 
wrecking  it  through  the  very  weakness  that  saved  him  from 
being  a  Catiline. 

Key  was  his  evil  genius.  He  shut  him  out  from  the  school 
of  generalship  based  on  defeat,  that  in  the  end  would,  prob 
ably,  have  won  him  success.  Looking  back,  it  is  astonishing 
to  note  the  amount  of  important  work  accomplished  by  the 
man  so  unknown  to  history.  All  the  time  McClellan  was 
organizing  about  Washington,  Key  was  busy  bringing  about 
the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  It  seems 
strange  now  that  there  should  have  been  any  difficulty. 
But  the  Republican  party  was  new  and  exceedingly  timid. 
It  could  enact  a  prohibitory  tariff,  and  so  offend  all  Europe ; 
but  it  dare  not  free  one  slave,  for  fear  of  angering  the  Demo 
crats.  The  man  who  subsequently  took  to  himself  the  credit 
of  accomplishing  this  measure,  Senator  Wilson,  of  Massa 
chusetts,  was  its  most  bitter  opponent.  He  gave  way  at  the 


Appendix.  295 

last  moment,  when  the  success  of  the  move  was  assured,  and 
then,  hurrying  to  the  front,  led  the  majority,  and  claimed 
all  the  reward. 

The  work  of  making  McClellan  a  political  oracle  was 
overdone.  The  Government  at  Washington  took  the  alarm. 
As  I  have  said,  it  was  an  unnecessary  panic.  The  only  offi 
cials  who  remained  calm  were  Lincoln  and  Seward.  The 
first  did  so  because  he  had  taken  the  measure  of  the  young 
Napoleon,  and  the  other  for  that  he  understood  the  ele 
ments  at  work,  and  knew  that,  as  Key  had  said,  the  vol 
unteers  could  not  be  used  against  the  Government  they 
had  enlisted  to  preserve.  They  represented  the  American 
people,  and  while  the  American  people  may  succumb, 
helplessly,  to  an  incorporated  monopoly,  or  the  continua 
tion  of  such,  they  will  never  tolerate  a  military  dictator. 
McClellan  was  doomed.  The  great  characters  at  the  cap 
ital,  called  by  a  wise  Providence  to  the  control  of  our 
Government,  when  that  GoA'ernment  trembled  on  the  verge 
of  ruin,  used  McClellan  so  far  as  he  could  be  made  use 
ful,  and  then  quietly  set  him  aside.  The  man  who  hon 
estly  sought  to  make  him  great  made  him  a  failure. 
"McClellan's  Own  Story"  should  tell  this,  but  the  name 
of  his  familiar  seldom  appears,  and  when  it  does,  it  is  as 
that  of  an  orderly.  This  obscurity  suited  Key.  Had  his 
chief  been  a  great  success,  this  shrinking  from  observation 
would  have  been  the  same.  This  was  not  the  result  of  a 
morbid  condition.  It  seemed  to  be  the  normal  and  healthy 
nature  of  the  man.  When  he  returned  to  Cincinnati,  to  die 
from  disease  contracted  on  the  field  of  Antietam,  he  pur 
chased  a  lot  in  Spring  Grove  Cemetery,  and  erected  a  mon 
ument,  upon  which  he  would  permit  no  inscription,  not 
even  his  name.  Loving  hands  have  since  supplied  the 
necessary  legend  of  birth  and  death,  but  in  lieu  thereof 
there  should  be  inscribed  upon  the  obelisk  :  The  Evil 
Genius  of  George  B.  McClellan  ! 


296  Appendix. 


GRANT  AND  SHERMAN  ON  THOMAS. 

THE  student  of  history  who  confines  himself  to  the  Memoirs 
of  Grant  and  Sherman  for  the  standing  of  Thomas  will  be 
poorly  informed,  or  rather  deplorably  misinformed.  The 
patronizing  manner  in  which  the  hero  of  Nashville  is 
damned  with  faint  praise  would  amuse  were  it  not  so  exas 
perating.  Both  these  popular  idols  unite  in  commending 
Thomas  as  an  excellent  officer,  but  too  slow  to  be  entrusted 
with  a  separate  command. 

He  was  slow  to  cause  useless  slaughter  of  the  brave 
soldiers  under  his  command,  but  he  was  swift  to  strike  when 
the  stroke  became  urgent  and  promised  success,  and  the 
fact  that  he  never  suffered  defeat  proves  the  soundness  of 
his  judgment.  His  loving  heart  made  him  shrink  from 
needless  loss  of  the  noble  troops  depending  on  his  soldierly 
ability,  while  his  patriotic  impulses  made  life  as  nothing 
when  his  country  demanded  the  sacrifice. 

He  was  not  the  man  to  order  a  hopeless  assault  on  an  im 
pregnable  position  that  could  have  been  turned  without 
loss,  as  it  subsequently  was,  and  send  in  a  report  of  the  loss 
of  fifteen  hundred  killed  and  wounded,  with  the  excuse  that 
he  had  wasted  these  lives  to  teach  his  troops  that  the  old  man 
would  fight. 

reneral  Thomas  was  not  the  man  to  expose  his  camp,  in 
the  presence  of  the  enemy,  to  a  shameful  surprise  and  a  hor 
rible  butchery  while  he  remained  drinking  on  a  gunboat 
ten  miles  from  the  scene  of  disaster. 

Nor  could  George  H.  Thomas  have  remained  in  his  tent 
for  three  days  while,  under  the  scorching  midsummer's  sun 
of  a  southern  clime,  hundreds  of  his  dead  lay  rotting,  and 
his  wounded  writhing  in  agony  on  the  awful  slope  he  had 


Appendix.  297 

wantonly  assaulted,  until  the  agonizing1  cries  of  the  one,  and 
the  stench  of  the  other,  sweeping  over  Vicksburg,  filled  the 
Confederates  with  horror,  and  brought,  under  a  flag  of  truce, 
a  message  which  said: 

"For  God's  sake  remove  your  dead  and  care  for  your 
wounded  or  I  will." 

I  know  the  accepted  excuse  for  this  is  that  our  great  gen 
eral,  when  he  ordered  the  assault  and  left  his  dead  and 
dying  uncared  for,  was  under  the  influence  of  that  whis 
key  which  President  Lincoln  wished  distributed  among  our 
other  generals.  - 

General  George  Henry  Thomas  fought  his  way  through 
to  renown  under  the  disfavor  of  the  Government  he  served, 
and  he  survived  the  war  to  suffer  keeiity  the  neglect  and 
cold  commendation  of  his  associates  in  arms,  who  were  jeal 
ous  of  his  success  and  fearful  of  his  fame.  He  was  not  the 
man  to  complain,  but  that  he  felt  deeply  the  following  letter 
tells.  So  silent  was  he  that  the  few  words  he  put  to  paper 
speak  volumes. 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  March  8,  1869. 
DR.  J.  S.  HALE. 

Dear  Sir  : 

I  could  not  possibly  have  any  influence,  because  General 
Grant  is  not  a  friend  of  mine,  and  would  not  be  disposed  to 
accommodate  me  in  any  way,  if  public  opinion  did  not  com 
pel  him  to  do  so. 

Respectfully, 

GEO.  H.  THOMAS. 


298  Appendix. 


VON  MOLTKE  AS  A  CRITIC. 

IT  is  the  habit  of  the  newspaper  guild  to  scoff  at  criticisms 
made  by  civilians  on  war  matters,  as  something  impudent 
and  absurd.  Thus  when  Mr.  Samuel  R.  Reid  published  his 
masterly  dissection  of  Grant's  conduct  at  Vicksburg,  the 
only  response  was  a  sneer  at  a  man  who  never  set  a  squad 
ron  in  the  field  presuming  to  criticise  the  war  men  and  their 
campaigns. 

These  gentlemen  forget,  if  they  ever  knew,  that  all  we 
have  of  accepted  war  records  comes  from  the  pens  of  civil 
ians.  To  enforce  their  rule  would  be  to  take  from  our  libra 
ries  all  the  great  histories  of  a  troubled  past.  The  men- 
killers  are  not  gifted  as  authors,  and  when  they  do  indulge 
their  efforts  are  not  reliable.  To  lie  like  a  bulletin  has  come 
to  be  a  proverb,  and  a  bulletin  is  a  condensed  report.  From 
the  day  of  Julius  Csesar  to  that  of  Napoleon  we  find  a  con 
tinued  line  of  fiction  in  this  direction.  That  eminent  divine 
and  teacher,  Alexander  Kinmont,  once  suggested  to  his  class 
to  estimate,  from  Caesar's  enumeration  of  the  hosts  of  Gauls 
he  encountered  and  killed,  the  population  of  the  country  he 
conquered,  allowing  five  members  of  a  family  to  each  Gaul. 
The  result  was  ludicrous. 

To  satisfy  the  carping  critics,  however,  I  give  here  a  crit 
icism  of  Von  Moltke  on  that  summer  excursion  of  Sherman's 
to  the  sea,  that  is  so  idiotically  eulogized  and  sung  by  our 
simple  folk.  Here  it  is: 

Said  Von  Moltke  to  an  American  officer: 

"In  that  movement  from  the  front  to  some  point  on  the 
coast  where  the  fleet  could  relieve  the  army,  there  was  a 
successful  march  because  no  enemy  was  in  the  way  to  make 


Appendix.  299 

it  perilous.  Having  no  objective  point,  in  a  military  sense, 
to  make  such  a  movement  advisable  the  military  man  is  at 
a  loss  to  know  why  the  enemy  so  long  combated,  at  a  heavy 
expense  of  lives  and  treasure,  should  be  left  to  regain  all  that 
had  been  lost.  Accidents  may  be  taken  advantage  of  but 
never  calculated  on,  and  it  was  by  the  merest  accident  that 
the  enemy  did  not  regain  through  that  movement  of  the 
United  States  Army  all  that  had  been  secured  through  years 
of  campaigning  and  hard  fighting." 


300  Appendix. 


DANGERS  FROM  FRANCE.— TESTIMONY  OF  HON. 
L.  Q.  C.  LAMAR. 

KNOWING  that  the  Hon.  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar  was  possessed  of 
valuable  information  as  to  the  designs  of  the  French  Gov 
ernment  looking  to  interference  during  our  late  civil  war,  I 
sought  that  gentleman  with  the  following  results  : 

I  asked  him  if  Hood's  proposed  invasion  from  the  Tennes 
see  was  in  furtherance  of  Louis  Napoleon's  design  of  inter 
ference  in  behalf  of  the  Confederate  Government.  He 
replied  that  so  far  as  the  action  of  the  authorities  at  Rich 
mond  was  concerned  he  was  uninformed  and  could  not 
answer. 

"I  know  very  well,"  said  he,  "that  Louis  Napoleon 
was  not  only  in  favor  of  interfering  in  our  behalf,  but 
warmly  so.  I  was  received  kindly  and  spoken  to  with  the 
utmost  frankness  upon  the  subject  by  members  of  his  Gov 
ernment.  There  were  two  obstacles  in  his  way.  One  was 
the  fact  of  our  institution  of  slavery  which  would  make 
intervention  in  our  behalf  unpopular  among  the  masses  of 
the  French  people.  The  other  was  his  need  of  a  naval  power, 
like  England  or  Russia,  as  an  ally  in  the  movement  of 
intervention.  The  Count  de  Morney,  the  Emperor's  confi 
dential  adviser,  opened  his  mind  to  me  very  freely,  and 
gave  assurances  that  made  us  hope,  with  reason,  for  the 
intervention  sooner  or  later  of  the  Imperial  Government  of 
France.  On  one  occasion  I  was  shown  a  private  note  from 
the  Emperor  in  which  he  intimated  a  purpose  to  give  a  posi 
tive  order  which,  had  it  not  been  revoked,  would  have 
brought  on  the  intervention  so  confident!}^  expected. 

"As  the  struggle  went  on  in  its  first  stage,  when  the 
Confederate  cause  had  so  many  victories  to  its  credit,  the 
Emperor  was  inclined  to  believe  that  we  could  win  without 


Appendix.  301 

outside  intervention.  When  the  tide  began  to  turn,  through 
the  exhaustion  of  our  resources,  the  Emperor  became 
deeply  interested,  so  there  was  at  least  as  much  danger  to 
the  Federal  Government  when  we  were  losing  as  there  was 
when  we  were  successful.  At  any  time  before  the  cause 
grew  utterly  desperate  the  way  was  open  to  an  intervention 
from  France.  Had  Hood  defeated  Thomas  and  won  his 
way  to  the  Ohio,  it  would  most  probably  have  had  a  potent 
influence  in  bringing  about  that  intervention. 

"The  motive  for  this  cause  on  the  part  of  the  Emperor 
was  not  altogether  a  sentiment. 

44  In  the  blockade  of  the  Southern  ports  France  suffered  as 
England  suffered,  only  in  a  less  degree.  Perhaps  the 
French  Government  felt  it  more  deeply  than  the  English, 
because  in  France  the  laboring  classes  had  been  taught  and 
trained  to  look  to  the  Government  for  subsistence.  When 
this  failed  the  Government  was  held  responsible.  Now,  Pres 
ident  Lincoln's  navy  had  not  only  established  a  blockade, 
but  his  friends  in  Congress  had  enacted  a  high  protective 
tariff  which  was  irritating  to  Europe  at  the  very  time  when 
Mr.  Seward  was  courting  favors  from  the  European  Gov 
ernments  ;  and  when  the  news  spread  abroad  that  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  North,  failing  to  perfect  its  blockade,  was 
sinking  ships  loaded  with  stone  in  the  channels,  so  as  to 
destroy  Southern  harbors,  the  complaints  in  Europe  were 
very  great. 

"Again,  it  was  a  cherished  policy  of  the  Emperor  to 
make  his  regime  distinguished  for  its  friendship  to  peoples 
struggling  for  independence  and  nationality.  You  remem 
ber  his  intervention  in  the  Italian  struggle.  He  was  also 
suspected,  arid  I  think  with  good  reason,  of  fomenting  the 
Polish  Rebellion  against  Russia,  and  at  the  time  that  I  was 
in  Europe  his,  the  Emperor's,  influence  in  Russian  councils, 
which  had  been  very  great,  had  not  only  been  destroyed, 
but  there  was  a  general  expectation  of  hostile  relations 
between  the  two  Empires,  France  and  Russia. 


302  Appendix. 

4 '  From  all  that  I  can  learn,  his  idea  was  to  be  the  instru 
ment  of  giving  the  South  independence  and  nationality 
upon  the  condition  of  abolishing  slavery.  He  would  thus 
connect  himself  not  only  with  his  deliverance  of  the  South 
ern  people  from  their  subjection  to  the  forces  of  the  Union, 
but  also  with  the  emancipation  of  four  millions  of  slaves." 


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